Class £aXIo 

Book ~R 3^ 
CopigMU? 

C0PXRIGHT DEPOSIT 



The time was spent at Val-ley Forge, and the men lived in log- 
huts which the)' had first built. 

(Page u) (Lives of the Presidents.) 



Lives of the 

PRESIDENTS 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES 

Told in Words of One Syllable 



By 

JEAN S. REMY 

and 

H. C. FAULKNEK 



With Illustrations 



A. L. BURT COMPANY 

Publishers :: :: :: :: :: New York 



L_r/ 



Copyright 1900, By A. L. Burt 
Copyright 1925, By A. L. Burt Company 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



JUN -5 1925 
©C1A829548 



CONTENTS 



George Washington i 

John Adams 16 

Thomas Jefferson 20 

James Madison 25 

James Monroe 29 

John Quincy Adams 33 

Andrew Jackson 38 

Martin Van Buren 43 

William Henry Harrison 45 

John Tyler 47 

James Knox Polk 49 

Zachary Taylor 52 

Millard Fillmore 54 

Franklin Pierce 56 

James Buchanan 58 

Abraham Lincoln 60 

Andrew Johnson 66 

Ulysses Simpson Grant 68 

Rutherford B. Hayes : 73 

James Abram Garfield 75 

Chester Alan Arthur 78 

Stephen Grover Cleveland 80 

Benjamin Harrison 85 

William McKinley 88 

Theodore Roosevelt 96 

William Howard Taft 110 

Woodrow Wilson 117 

Warren Gamaliel Harding 124 

Calvin Coolidge 133 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



GEORGE WASH-ING-TON. 

Wat down in Vir-gin-i-a, near a small creek, called 
Bridg-es Creek, there is a shaft of white stone ; — on it is the 
name of George Wash-ing-ton and the date of his birth : 
Feb-ru-ar-y 22d, 1732. 

On this spot once stood the big brick house in which 
George Wash-ing-ton was born ; it was built in 1657 by John 
Wash-ing-ton ; his grand-son, Au-gus-tine, was the f a-ther 
of the lit-tle boy who be-came our first pres-i-dent. The 
moth-er of George Wash-ing-ton was Ma-ry Ball ; so sweet 
and fair was she, when she was a young girl, that she was 
known as " Sweet Mol-ly." 

Now she was not the first wife of Au-gus-tine Wash- 
ing-ton ; and he had two boys, Law-rence and Au-gus-tine, 
when he made her his wife. These boys were so kind to 
their small broth-er George, when he was young, and gave 
him so much help, all through his life, that their names 
should stay in your minds. When George was three years 
old his home was burned to the ground, and his fa-ther 
built a fine new house, just o-yer the riy-er from where the 
cit-y of Fred-er-icks-burg now stands. Here George went 
to his first school, and the name of the man who taught 
him was so queer, it will not go out of your mind ; — it was 
" Hob-by." In those old days, the boys wrote to their boy- 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



friends, just as they do at this day. See what George, when 
he was nine years old, wrote to his best friend, Rich-ard 
Hen-ry Lee : — " Dear Dick-ey, I thank you ver-y much for 
the pret-ty pioture book you gave me. Sam asked me to 
show him the pic-tures and I showed him all the pic-tures 
in it ; and I read to him how the tame el-e-phant took care 
of his mas-ter's lit-tle boy, and put him on his back and 
would not let an-y-bod-y touch his mas-ter's lit-tle son. I 
can read three or four pages some-times with-out miss-ing 
a word. Ma says I may go to see you and stay all day with 
you next week if it be not rain-y. She says I may ride my 
po-ny, He-ro, if Uncle Ben will go with me and lead He-ro. 
I have a lit-tle piece of po-et-ry a-bout the book you gave 
me, but I must n't tell you who wrote the po-et-ry. 

« G. W.'s com-pli-ments to R. H. L. 
And likes his book full well. 
Hence-forth will count him as his friend, 
And hopes ma-ny hap-py days he may spend. 

94 Your good friend, 

" Geobge "Wash-ing-ton." 

" I am go-ing to get a whip top soon, and you may see 

and whip it." 

You see the boys in those old days were fond of books, 
and toys and hors-es just as the boys of to-day are ; and 
there is a tale of George, and a young colt, which shows 
that he was a brave and strong boy, who did not fear to 
tell the truth, though he had done wrong. He and some of 
his boy-friends were in a field, in which were kept some 
young colts, some of which had been used. 

The boys caught one colt, put a bit in its mouth, and 
held it, while George sprang on its back. The colt, mad 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



3 



with fear, sprang in the air, tore through the field, and tried 
in vain to throw the boy ; at last he leaped with such force, 
that he broke a blood ves-sel, and fell to the ground dead. 
Just at this time George's moth-er came out, and saw the 
dead colt. She asked the boys if they knew how he died. 
" Yes, mad-am," at once said her own boy ; and then he told 
the whole truth. There are more tales of the boy-life of 
George and all show that he was a brave, strong boy, full of 
life and fun, aiad at the head in games and sports of all 
kinds. 

His fa-ther died when he was on-ly e-lev-en (11) years 
old ; but his moth-er lived to be an old, old la-dy, who was, 
you may be sure, ver-y proud of her great son. 

Af-ter his fa-ther's death George made his home with 
his broth-er, Au-gus-tine, un-til he was six-teen (16) years 
old ; and the short notes which he wrote to his moth-er 
were not like those he sent to his boy-friends, or like those 
which you boys and girls write to-day. He be-gan, " Hon- 
ored Mad-am;" and end-ed the stiff lit-tle note, — "Your 
du-ti-ful son." 

In those days folks lived on great big farms, or plan- 
tations, as they were called, and raised to-bac-co, which 
was sold for much mon-ey in Eng-land. George's fa-ther 
had a ver-y large plan-ta-tion and ma-ny slaves to work on 
it ; some day this would all be-long to George, and so he 
was taught how to write in a big round hand, how to do 
sums, and to look out for those who were in his care. 

All through these years there was talk of war ; for a 
cru-el war be-tween the French and Eng-lish, known as 
King George-'s "War, had be-gun ; and the boys, who heard 
so much talk of war, of course played at it ; and George 
was ev-er at the head ev-ei* lead-ing these bands of young 



4 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



sol-diers ; he longed, just as boys would to-day, to throw 
a-way his books, to leave school, to go to the true war and 
bear a real gun ; and when he was fif-teen ; his broth-er 
Law-rence, who was a sol-dier, tried to make his moth-er 
let him join the na-vy, as he was too young to go to the 
war. But this moth-er was a ver-y wise wo-man, and said 
no ; that his place was at home un-til he knew how to care 
for the great plan-ta-tion and the ma-ny slaves that in five 
or six years would be his. 

Now, at this time, this great land of ours vas so wild 
that it was hard to tell how much land a man owned, just 
where one great farm end-ed and the next be-gan ; and a 
man who knew the land so well that he could tell folks just 
these things would be of much use ; so George now be-gan 
to give much time to just this work ; and so well did he do 
it that soon folks came to him when they were in doubt. 

In fact this work led, as you shall see, straight up to the 
pres-i-dent's seat. His broth-er Law-rence had mar-ried 
Anne Fair-fax, and in their home at Mt. Ver-non George 
met ma-ny great men ; a-mong oth-ers was Lord Thom-as 
Fair-fax, who owned a piece of land so large that he did not 
know how big it was ; he sent George to find this out ; and 
now this young boy had a rough piece of real work to do. 

In March, 1748, he and a young friend, George Wil-liam 
Fair-fax, left the ease of Mt. Ver-non to live in the wild 
woods, where they would see on-ly Indians, or, at the best, 
rough white men ; in the log huts of the white men they 
found so much dirt that, af-ter one tri-al, rath-er than sleep 
on dir-ty straw, with no sheet, and but one torn, thin blan- 
ket, they ei-ther lay on the bare floor, near the big wood-fire, 
or else built a huge fire in the woods and lay close to it on 
the earth. They had to swim their hors-es o-ver streams ; 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



5 



they shot wild deer and birds, and of-ten cooked and ate 
them, alone in the great wild woods, far from e-ven the camp 
of the In-di-ans. Once, at least, we know, from a little book 
in which each night George wrote of what they had done 
that day, that they saw a grand war-dance of the In-di-ans ; 
the mu-sic by which they danced was made by a pot half 
full of wa-ter, w^ith a deer-skin o-yer the top, and a gourd 




MOUNT VERNON— THE HOME OP WASHINGTON. 



filled with shot ; this must have made queer mu-sic to 
dance by. 

The boys were gone six weeks, and did their work so 
well that the gov-ern-or heard of it, and he made George a 
" pub-lic sur-vey-or ; " that is, it was his place to find out the 
size of all the new farms ; and his word was to be law. He 
must have done this work well, too, for the lines which he 



6 



LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 



laid down were the ones used by the new States years and 

years af-ter his death. 

Now, for weeks at a time, he was a-lone in the woods with 
the In-di-ans ; liv-ing in their camps, and learn-ing of their 
life; they taught him ma-ny things; and they, in turn, 
learned to love and trust him ; this lone-ly life made him a 
grave and qui-et man ; one who talked lit-tle ; and it taught 
him to think for him-self, at an age when most boys are 
told what to do by their par-ents and friends. 

When he was not in the woods, hard at work, he was 
at Mt. Vernon ; and here the talk was of the great lands in 
the west ; and of the war bet-ween the Eng-lish and the 
French, who were each try-ing to drive a-way the oth-er, 
and were both try-ing to force out the In-di-ans. It was 
pret-ty hard for the In-di-ans, who now had not on-ly to fight 
each oth-er, but the white men/too. At last they took sides, 
some with the Eng-lish, some with the French ; and a fierce 
war broke out o-ver the land near the O-hi-o River ; no white 
men had yet lived there, and both sides wished to own it. 

The French moved ver-y fast, and built great forts, and 
sent men there to keep the Eng-lish a-way ; it was no " play- 
war " in which Wash-ing-ton now took part ; he had real 
men under him ; but, just as he be-gan to learn what real 
war was, he had to go to the West In-dies with his broth-er 
Law-rence, who was ver-y sick. They spent the win-ter 
there, but Law-rence did not get well, and came back to Mt. 
Ver-non in the spring, where he died in Ju-ly, 1752. 

He left his land in charge of Wash-ing-ton, who now 
made his home there; and when his broth-er's daugh-ter 
died he be-came the own-er. 

Now, while Wash-ing-ton had been a-way, the French 
had been ver-y ac-tive; they had made friends with the 



In-di-ans, and had e-ven dared to send some Eng-lish tra-ders 
in a ship to France. 

At this act Eng-land was up and in arms, and sent 
o-ver great ships and ma-ny men to help fight the French. 
The first step that Eng-land took was to send men to warn 
the French a- way from the Eng-lish forts in Penn-syl-va-ni-a ; 
and Wash-ing-ton, who knew bet-ter than a-ny one else the 
rough wild woods, and who was a friend of the In-di-ans, 
led a lit-tle band of sev-en men through the dense, dark 
woods and o-ver riv-ers filled with float-ing ice, up to the 
French lines. He told the chief man of the French troops 
just what the Eng-lish said, but this French man would 
not give up one inch of ground that he had won from the 
In-di-ans, and gave Wash-ing-ton a note to take back with 
him, in which he said as much. 

Of course Eng-land could take but one course now; 
and so the long, fierce war known as the " Sev-en Years' 
"War" be-gan. Wash-ing-ton was made a colo-nel, and 
showed so much skill, and was so brave, that in a short 
time he took charge of part of the troops of Gen-er-al Brad- 
dock. 

In June, 1755, the troops made a start for Fort Du-v 
quesne, where they were to stay ; and on this trip, while 
they were deep in the woods, the In-di-ans, with fierce 
shrieks and wild cries, sprang on them from the rocks and 
trees. The horse on which Wash-ing-ton rode was shot; 
Gen-er-al Brad-dock got such a wound that he died, and 
ma-ny poor men were killed. Here again Wash-ing-ton 
act-ed so brave-ly, and was so wise, that the sol-diers said 
that Brad-dock had lost the day and Wash-ing-ton had 
saved the ar-my. 

At Brad-dock's death Wash-ing-ton was made chief of 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDEKTO. 



all the troops in the col-o-nies ; and the first thing he did 
was to place men near the homes which the white men 
were mak-ing in the new lands, and so help these ear-ly 
set-tiers to stop the In-di-ans when they came to rob them 
and to burn up their lit-tle log cab-ins, for a great fear of 
the red men was o-ver all the land. Now, when the war 
came to a close with the fall of the French, we find that 
Wash-ing-ton is a very great man, that his troops love him 
ver-y much, and that the heads of the states feel that he is 
a strong, wise man, and one whom they can trust. All 
this time, you know, he was an Eng-lish sol-dier, fight-ing 
for Eng-land ; but, deep in his heart, and in the hearts of 
all the brave men who fought with him, there was, we 
may be sure, a love for this fair land, and a long-ing for its 
best good. 

After the war was at an end Wash-ing-ton, who was 
ver-y glad to give up his post, mar-ried Mrs. Eus-tis, a young 
wid-ow with two lit-tle chil-dren, a girl of six years and a 
boy of twelve, and went to Mt. Ver-non to live. For twen-ty 
years now he lived the qui-et life he loved so well. He took 
good care of his farm, was hap-py with his fam-i-ly and 
friends, and grew, day by day, in power. He did not lead 
an i-dle life, you may be sure ; he rose ear-ly, had his break- 
fast at sev-en in sum-mer and eight in win-ter ; then rode 
o-ver his farm and saw that all was right. He had his din- 
ner at two o'clock ; then had an ear-ly tea, and of -ten was 
in bed by nine o'clock. Twice a year he sent to Lon-don 
for things need-ed in the way of dress for his fam-i-ly and 
slaves, for tools, books, drugs, etc. Some of the things he 
bought for the chil-dren I think you boys and girls would 
like, too. He sent for u tops, lit-tle books for chil-dren to 
read, a doll, and oth-er toys," 



-GEOKGE WASHINGTON. 9 

Wash-ing-ton loved hors-es and was ver-y fond of hunt- 
ing. The name of his pet horse was " Blue-skin " ; he must 
have looked ver-y fine when he was on horse-back ; for he 
was a big man, with bright blue eyes and high color, and 




MARTHA WASHHWTOR. 



ne wore a red vest with gold lace on it, and a dark blue 
cloth coat Mrs. Wash-ing-ton rode in a fine car-riage drawn 
by four hors-es, and her driv-er wore the Wash-ing-ton col- 
ors of red, white and gold. These old days were full of life 



10 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



and fun, but there was work as well, and soon came more 
talk of war. 

All through these twen-ty years this land was grow- 
ing big-ger and big-ger ; and at last came the time when 
folks did not see why they should not be free from Eng-land 
and rule their own land in their own way. 

At last Eng-land made a law called the " Stamp Act," 
which put so high a tax on goods that folks here would not 
pay it ; tea was one of the things on which this tax was put ; 
and when Eng-land sent o-ver three ships full of tea to Bos- 
ton, our men would not let it be ta-ken from the ships, but 
broke the great chests and threw all the tea in the wa-ter. 
This act is known as the " Bos-ton Tea Par-ty " ; and now 
the first signs of war were seen ; a fierce fight took place at 
Lex-ing-ton, one Sun-day morn-ing, be-tween the Brit-ish and 
A-mer-i-can troops ; and now, all o-ver the land, went up the 
cry, " To arms ! To arms ! " 

This is how the great "War of In-de-pend-ence be-gan ; 
and you know the name of the man who was at once put 
at the head of the A-mer-i-can ar-my — George Wash-ing-ton, 
of course ! Now he is not an Eng-lish-man fight-ing for his 
king, but an A-mer-i-can fight-ing to free his own land. A 
long, hard fight it was, too, but not once did Wash-ing-ton 
or his brave men lose heart. He drove the Brit-ish out of 
Bos-ton, and then, for fear they would go to New York, he 
sent men there ; but the Brit-ish ships went to Can-a-da in- 
stead, and made that land theirs. 

It was just at this time that Eich-ard Hen-ry Lee, the 
boy-friend of Wash-ing-ton, made a move in Con-gress that 
our land should say to the whole world that it would be free 
from Brit ish rule ; and so the Dec-lar-a-tion of In-de-pend- 
ence was drawn up and sent out to the world on J uly 4, 1776. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



11 




War now Tbe-gan in dead-ly earn-est ; and, at the great 
bat-tie of Long Isl-and, our men met with great loss of life, 
and had to flee from the foe. Soon af -ter this bad news the 
Brit-ish took Phil-a-del-phi-a, and 
now Wash-ing-ton was sad at heart ; 
on Christ-mas day of 1776, though, 
our troops won in the great fight 
that took place at Tren-ton, and 
there was joy in the whole land ; 
good news came with the New 
Year, too, for Wash-ing-ton won 
ma-ny fights ; and at last, in Oc-to- 
ber, 1777, the Brit-ish troops in 
charge of Gen-er-al Bur-goyne gave 
up their arms to Gen-er-al Gates, lieutenant-general burgoyne. 
That win-ter of 1777 was a bad one From an English print ' im 
for Wash-ing-ton and his men ; at no time in the war did 
they suf-f er so much ; the time was spent at Val-ley Forge, 
and the men lived in log huts which they had first built, 
in long straight lines, like cit-y streets ; twelve men lived 
in each hut, and there was a fire-place at the back, but no 
fire could keep out the aw-ful cold, and no hut was snug 
e-nough to keep out the snow that fell in great drifts a-round 
this lit-tle town of log huts. To make things worse there 
was lit-tle food to be had; the men had on-ly poor, thin 
clothes, and their bare feet oft-en left marks of blood on 
the white snow. But the men did not lose hope, and kept 
their faith through all the long months in their great 
lead-er, whose lot was quite as hard as theirs was ; the 
farm-house in which he had a room still stands, and it is 
hard to be-iieve, as you look at this old house on the banks 
f the Del-a-ware Riv-er, that once the big or-chard back of it 



12 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



and all the pret-ty fields were filled with poor little wood-en 
huts in which, for the sake of free-dom, lived and suf-fered 
thou-sands of brave men. 

In the spring things were bet-ter, for France joined 
A-mer-i-ca in her fight for free-dom, and three years from 
this time the Brit-ish were beaten at York-town and A-mer- 
i-ca was free. One of the great French-men, who gave us 

much help, ahd was a firm friend of 
Wash-ing-ton's, was the Mar-quis de 
La-fay-ette. 

A ver-y sad thing dur-ing these 
last years of the war was the base act 
of Ben-e-dict Ar-nold, who made up 
his mind to sell to the Brit-ish some 
posts near West Point, of which he 
had charge. He sent a note to Clin- 
ton by a young Brit-ish spy, Ma-jor 
An-dre ; but on his way to the Brit- 
ish lines this young man was caught by three of our men. 
They found the note in his boots and he was brought to 
the A-mer-i-can camp, tried for his life and hung as a spy. 
Ben-e-dict Ar-nold had made his way to a ship and set sail 
for Eng-land, and his name is hat-ed, not on-ly by his own 
land, but by e-ven the land to whom he tried to sell his 
coun-try. 

It was in March, 1783, that the news of peace spread 
through the land, and it is said that Wash-ing-ton wept 
with joy, as he read the glad news to his troops ; he gave 
or-ders that the whole ar-my should give thanks to God ; and 
this was done at a great meet-ing on the day af-ter Lord 
Corn-wal-lis laid down his sword. Then there was a great 
ball giv-en at Fred-er-icks-burg, and Wash-ing-ton's old moth' 




3IARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



13 



er, sev-en-ty-four years old, was there lean-ingon the arm of 
her son ; and do you not think she was proud, as one af-ter 
an-oth-er of the great French of-fi-cers bowed to her, and 
spoke in her son's praise ? 

It was on Christ-mas eve that Wash-ing-ton came home 
to Mt. Vernon, af-ter eight years of war : rid-ing in state, 
with his wife at his side, this great A-mer-i-can, feared now 




SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS AT YORKTOWN. 

by kings, and loved more than ev-er by the coun-try he had 
made free, came glad-ly back to take up the qui-et coun-try 
life he loved so well ; and here, could he have had his way, 
he would have lived un-til his death ; but this new coun-try 
need-ed at its head a man whom folks loved and trust-ed, 
and of whom oth-er lands stood in fear. No man but Wash- 
ing ton could fill this great place ; and so, at the end of 



u 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



three years, once more at his coun-try's call, he left his 
home, — this time to be-come the first Pres-i-dent of the 
U-ni-ted States. Not one voice was a-gainst him ; eve-ry 
man in the new coun-try vot-ed to give him this last hon-or ; 
and on Ap-ril 30th, 1789, in New York Ci-ty, he took the 
oath of of-fice. Wash-ing-ton, who was a ve-ry rich man, 
had tak-en no mon-ey for serv-ing his coun-try in the war ; 
and said he would take none now ; but be-cause oth-er Pres- 
idents might not be rich e-nough or good e-nough to want 
to do the same, the peo-ple made him take $25,000 a year ; 
now, you know, the Pres-i-dent gets $50,000 a year. 

Wash-ing-ton was in New York but one year, then the 
cap-i-tal was moved to Phil-a-del-phia, and here he lived in 
great state, un-til af-ter eight years in the Pres-i-dent's chair, 
once more, and for the last time, he came back home to Mt. 
Ver-non. 

At the end of his term of of-fice, Wash-ing-ton on-ly 
wait-ed to see the next Pres-i-dent, John Ad-ams, take the 
chair, and soon af-ter he came back talk a-rose of war with 
France; and, of course, the coun-try turn-ed to him ; he was 
a-gain put in charge of the ar-my, and took up the pub-lic 
life he had so glad-ly laid down. But he had not long to 
bear it this time, for on De-cem-ber 12th, 1799, while rid-ing 
in a hard rain-storm, he took a heav-y cold, from which he 
died on Sat-ur-day night, De-cem-ber 14th, be-tween ten and 
twelve o'clock. 

Wash-ing-ton was bur-ied at Mt. Ver-non, and to-day 
the tomb of " The Fa-ther of his Coun-try," as he is lov-ing-ly 
called is a sa-cred place ; not on-ly to us, but to the men and 
wo men of the old lands, which were taught by him so long 
a-go to hon-or and fear this great, new A-mer-i-ca. 

W&sh-ing-ton heid been dead just one him-dred years on 



GEORGE WASHIftGTOff. 



15 



De-cem ber 14th, 1899, and the date was made much of in 
the U-nit-ed States : in New York Ci-ty, in Wash-ing-ton, 
and at Mt. Ver-non there was a great time in his hon-or, for 
this great man is as dear to his coun-try to-day as he was 
when he was a-live. 




U LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



JOHN AD-AMS. 

John Ad ams was born, not in the far South withma-ny 
slaves to wait on him, but on a small farm in Brain-tree, 
Mass. Here, from old Eng-land had come, in 1636, his great- 
grand-f a-ther, Hen-ry Ad-ams ; and in this old home was 
born on Oc-to-ber 19th, 1735, John Ad-ams, who was to be 
the sec-ond Pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States. Now, on this 
farm in the east, there was much work to be done, and few 
to do it ; the folks who had made their homes here did not 
lead such lives of ease as those who lived on the great farms 
in the South. 

As a small boy, though, of course, he was taught to 
read and write, John Ad-ams had a good deal of hard work 
to do. There was wood to chop, and snow to be cleared 
a- way ; there were hors-es and cows to care for, and there 
was much work to do in the fields. In all this work John 
took his part, like the brave, strong boy that he was. When 
the days grew long and cold, he was sent to an old school 
near his home, and here he at once took his place with the 
boys, as one who would lead in fun and sport of all kinds. 
There was a good deal of fun, too, in those days, for boys 
and girls both ; in the cold days there was good, strong ice 
on which to skate ; there was snow to play in, and to make 
fine roads for long rides in a sleigh ; and, when the days 
were long and hot, there were fish in the big streams, and 
there was game in the wild woods. John was not fond of his 
books, but still he did good work at school ; and when he 
was quite young went to Har-vard Col-lege. He left it in 




JOHN ADAMS. 



JOHN ADAMS. 



1? 



1755, just at the start of tne " Sev-en Years' War " ; and the 
name of George Wash-ing-ton, the brave young Col-o-nel of 
Vir-gin-ia, rang loud in his ears. 

He taught school in Wor-ces-ter to earn the means to take 
up law ; and in 1758 he be-came a law-yer. He had ma-ny 
cas-es, and grew wise and great, though he did not make 
much mon-ey, as folks in the small town of Brain-tree 
were far from rich and paid small fees. But he did make 
ma-ny kind friends, and far and near he was known as a 
man of clear, strong mind and quick, bright thoughts ; he 
had a fine, sweet voice, too, and his speech-es were al-ways 
wise and showed much thought. 

In the strife with Eng-land he was, from the start, on 
the side of A-mer-i-ca. So much did Eng-land fear him 
in 1757, the Eng-lish king sent word that he would give him 
great wealth if he would serve him at this time. Ad-ams 
would not do this; he would speak and act just as he 
thought right, and be bound by no king. When the " Stamp 
Act " passed in 1764, he made a great speech, which was 
sent to those at the head of his State ; and when, in 1770, 
a troop of Brit-ish fired on a mob of A-mer-i-can men and 
boys in the streets of Bos-ton, he took the case to the 
courts, and spoke for the Brit-ish Cap-tain and his men, 
though they had killed five of our men. It may seem 
strange to you that Ad-ams, who stood for A-mer-i-can 
rights, should here take sides with the Brit-ish ; but, first of 
all, he stood for law ; and, though he knew he ran the risk 
of los-ing his high place in the hearts of A-mer-i-can men, 
still he would do what he thought right. But men Iovg 
truth, and like to see a brave man act as he thinks right, and 
so felt that he had just the clear, cool head and brain and the 
strong warm heart to give aid in the dark days that were to 



18 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



come to the land. He was sent to the First Con-gress and 
was one of the three men who drew up the Dec-la-ra-tion of 
In-de-pend-ence. 

He was al-so one of 
three men to go to France 
and ask for the aid which 
she gave to A-mer-i-ca, in 
the spring af-ter that hard 
win-ter at Val-ley Forge. 
Do you see why this trip 
at this time was a brave 
act, and one by which Ad- 
ams ran a great risk of los- 
ing his life ? Eng-land had 
no wish that he should 
reach France, and her ships 
tried in vain to get him. If 
he had been caught he 
would have been hung, as a 
man who was false to his 
land and his king. You know that he went to France 
though, and did his work well. He stood up for our rights 
and had a bill passed which made the ports of France and 
Eng-land free to our goods. At the end of the war he was 
sent to Eng-land to look out for our rights there; and, 
though now this is a pleas-ant task, it was not then, for it 
was hard for Ad-ams to be true to A-mer-i-ca and yet not 
an-ger the Eng-lish king, George III. 

But we have seen how bold and brave a man he was, 
so the first thing he said to the king was : " I must tell your 
Maj-es-ty that I love no coun-try but my own " ; and said the 
king : " An hon-est man will nev-er love an-y oth-er." In 




carpenter's hall. 

Where the first Continental Congress met Septem 
ber, 1774. 



JOHN ADAMS. 



19 




spite of this, Adams met with much rade-ness at the Eng- 
lish court ; but he did his best for his coun-try, and when 
he came home in 1787, af-ter twelve 
years of hard work, he was met with 
great joy. He was made Vice-Presi- 
dent with Wash-ing-ton, and at the 
end of Wash-ing-ton's term of of-fice 
he was made Pres-i-dent. He served 
on-ly four years and then made way 
for Thom-as Jef-f er-son. 

At the age of six-ty-eight years, 
with the love of the whole land, he 
went to his home in Quin-cy, Mass. 
His heart was ever with his coun-try ; 
and he lived un-til his son, John 
Quin-cy Ad-ams, was made Pres-i- 
dent of the U-nit-ed States. 

His last thoughts were for his coun-try. On June 30th, 
1826, he gave as a toast for the great feast to be held on 
Ju-ly 4th the words : " In-de-pend-ence for-ev-er." 

He died on the night of this, 
A-mer-i-ca's great day. His last 
words were of Jef-f er-son. He said : 
" Thom-as Jef-fer-son still lives." 
But this was not so, for Jef-fer-son 
had died a few hours be-fore on 
this same day ; and this young land 
wept for two of her great men, both 
of whom, in giv-lng up their best to their coun-try, helped 
to make it the great, free land that it is to-day. 



GEORGE III. 
From an anonymous print. 




RESIDENCE OF JOHN ADAMS. 
At Quincy, Mass. 



20 



LIVES OE THE PRESIDENTS. 



THOM-AS JEF-FER-SON. 

When Thom-as Jef-fer-son was a boy his home was sc 
near the In-di-ans' camp and he saw so much of them that 
I am sure all boys will like to read of him. His fa-ther, 
Pe-ter Jef-fer-son, took his bride, Jane Ean-dolph, to a house 
on a wild tract of land of o-ver 1,000 a-cres, way out in Vu> 
gin-ia, right in the midst of great woods. He was a big, 
strong man, and this strength was ve-ry use-ful to him hi 
mak-ing his new home, for he had to chop down huge treea 
and then cut them up in-to the logs of which the lit-tle log 
cab-in was built. He took with him in-to this wild new land 
on-ly a few slaves, but with their help his farm soon grew 
large, and he be-came a rich man. The In-di-ans were great 
friends of his, and al-ways sure of a warm wel-come in his 
home. 

Still, the In-di-ans were not al-ways at peace with the 
white men, who had come to make their homes so near 
them, and folks had to be on the watch for fear the red 
men would rob and kill them. Pe-ter Jef-fer-son was made 
Col-o-nel of the men who kept the In-di-ans back in the 
woods, and a-way from the lit-tle town that was fast grow- 
ing up near his home. 

Now, this great, strong man was fond of books, and it 
was with his fa-ther that lit-tle Thom-as be-gan to stu-dy* 
He was al-so taught to ride, to swim and to shoot ; and as 
he was fond of mu-sic he spent long hours in learn-ing 
to play on the vi-o-lin, or " fid-die" as it was then called. 



THOMAS JEFFERSOff. 



21 



The In-di-ans near his home liked him, and he used to play 
tunes for the lit-tle, brown In-di-an boys to dance by. 

He was on-ly nine years old when he went to board-ing 
school with a Mr. Doug-lass, and here he be-gan to stu-dy 
Lat-in, Greek and French. He was so near home that he 
did not stay a- way long at a time ; and in-deed, this home 
was such a hap-py one, so full of lif e and fun, that he did not 
want to be a-way from it long at one time. 

But this hap-py time did not last long, for Thom-as was 
but four-teen years old when his brave f a-ther was shot in 
a fight with the In-di-ans. This boy was now at the head of 
as big a place as the f a-ther of George "Wash-ing-ton had left 
to him, and though he kept on with his books he Jiad the 
care of this great farm to think of and plan for. He was a 
bright, well-read boy ; and was but six-teen when he took a 
place at Wil-liam and Ma-ry Col-lege. Here, his love for 
books and mu-sic kept him from the wild life led by some 
of the young men there, and made friends for him a-mong 
the great men, whose homes were in Wil-liams-town. 

He met a great law-yer, George Wythe, and be-gan the 
stu-dy of law with him when, at the end of two years, he 
left col-lege. In five years he be-gan the prac-tise of law in 
his old home in Vir-gin-ia. In two years, so bright and 
quick was he, and of such a strong, clear mind, that he had 
198 cas-es, held a high place in his State, and was a rich 
man. 

In 1770, while he and his moth-er were a-way from 
home, the old house burned down. When news of this 
came to Jef-f er-son, his first thought was for his books, and 
he said to the slave who had told him : "Did you save an-y 
of my books?" "No, mas-ter," said the slave, "but we did 
save your fid-die." You see e-ven when he was a great and 



22 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



bu-sy man he still loved his fid-die ; but the loss of all his law 
books was ve-ry hard for a bu-sy law-yer, and it took him a 
long while to get the new books that he must have. 



wid-ow. They were 
mar-ried on New Year's Day, 1772, and came to their home 
in such a hard snow-storm that the hors-es could not drag 
the coach through the big drifts, so these two youn& folks 
left the warm coach, and rode the tired hors-es up to the 
.door of their new home. Jef-fer-son and his wife gave 
great care to Mon-ti-cel-lo, and it was known far and near 
for its great beau-ty and for its choice and rare fruits and 
flow-ers. 

But Jef-fer-son was much from home. In 1762 he was 
sent to Con-gress, and here he at once stood at the hesd of the 
band of wise and great men who were then there. His 
mind was so clear and bright that in all the grave things 
that came up he knew at once just what to do, he had the 
trust of all men. 

He was a great help in writ-ing the Dec-la-ra-tion of In- 
de-pend-ence ; in fact, it may well be said that he wrote it. 




The Home of Thomas Jefferson, 



MONTICELLO. 



He had be-gun to 
build a ve-ry large new 
house at Mon-ti-cel-lo, 
and so in the lit-tle end 
of this he now went to 
live. Two years lat-er, 
to this home, which was 
to be-come known all 
o-ver the world, he 
brought his bride, Mrs. 
Mar-tha Skel-ton, a 
young and ve-ry rich 



THOMAS JEFFERSON". 



23 



Soon af-ter this great act he left Con-gress and turned his 
mind to the laws of his own State ; he made them safe and 
just for all men, both rich and poor. In 1779 he was made 
gov-ern-or of Vir-gin-ia ; and now his work was hard ; not 
on-ly must he find a way to keep the In-di-ans from the 
hous-es of the white men but the Brit-ish came down to the 
south and laid his fair home in ruins. Not for long years 
did Mon-ti-cel-lo grow in beau-ty once more. But through 
all the dark years of war Jef-fer-son did his work well ; he 
forced back the In-di-an foes, and gave help and aid to his 
State while the War for In-de-pend-ence went on. When the 
war was at an end, this strong, just man, with his clear, 
wise brain, was just the one to stand up for our rights in the 
lands a-cross the sea, so he was sent to France at the time 
Ad-ams was in Eng-land. While here he had a bill passed 
by which Eng-land said she would look on our land as free ; 
and this was a big point for us to gain. 

When Jef-fer-son came home he was made Sec-re-ta-ry 
of State, and in this high of-fice did much good work ; it 
was he who first gave us our own coins to use in place of the 
Eng-lish coins, which, up to that time had been in use here. 
Now, Al-ex-an-der Ham-il-ton was in charge of the work of 
mak-ing the coin, and a great feud came up be-tween him 
and Jef-fer-son as to how this should be done. Men, of 
course, took sides in this strife, and so two bands sprang up 
which were known as Ke-pub-li-cans and Fed-er-al-ists ; to- 
day these two bands are known as Ee-pub-li-cans and 
Dem-o-crats. Al-ex-an-der Ham-il-ton was killed in a du-el 
by Aa-ron Burr in Ju-ly, 1804. 

In 1801, Jef-fer-son was made Pres-i-dent ; and while he 
was in the chair this land grew strong and great. 

Our first steam-boat was built by Rob-ert Ful-ton while 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Jef-fer-son was Pres-i-dent ; and it did not look at all like the 
great boats of to-day ; it was a heav-y, clum-sy boat, which 
went by sails as well as steam. 

Jef-fer-son tried hard to put an 
end to the slave-trade, which he 
felt was a great wrong ; he thought, 
too, that folks should have the 
right to serve God in their own 
way ; and he held that on-ly men 
the clermont. w ho could read and write should 

Eob-ert Ful-ton's first Steam-boat. ^.^^ 

He was a great and a wise man ; books were his dear 
friends ; and so one of the hard-est things he had to do, af-ter 
he went home to Mon-ti-cel-lo, when he left the White House, 
was to sell all his books to Con-gress in or-der to get mon-ey 
to live on. To his own home hosts of friends and stran-gers 
came to see the great man, just as they had when he was in 
Wash ing-ton. But he sold his books so cheap that the 
mon-ey did not help him much ; and, at last, it seemed as 
if he must sell his dear old home, But now the peo-ple for 
whom he had done so much helped him, and a big fund was 
raised, so that he could keep his home and live there in 
com-f ort un-til his death. 

He lived to be a ver-y old man, and e-ven when he was 
so weak he could not rise from his bed, his great, strong 
brain was still clear. You know that he died on the 4th of 
Ju-ly, 1826, just a few hours be-fore the death of his old 
friend, John Ad-ams. 

Next to the name of George Wash-ing-ton, there is no 
name a-mong the great men of our land, of which the peo- 
ple are so proud, as that of Thom-as Jef-fer-son. 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



JAMES MADISON. 



JAMES MADISON". 25 



JAMES MAD-I-SON. 

In the home of his grand-f ath-er at Port Con-way, Vir- 
ginia, was born, in the spring of 1751, the small boy who 
was to be our fourth Pres-i-dent. He was ver-y young, 
though, when he went to live at Mon-ti-cel-lo, his f ath-er's 
great farm in Vir-gin-i-a, and here he led much the same 
life as George Wash-ing-ton did when a boy. He was but 
a small boy when the French and Eng-lish War be-gan, and 
when Brad-dock lost the day, a great fear of the In-di-ans 
spread to the ver-y door of his home ; and he grew up with 
the name of George Wash-ing-ton ev-er in his ears, as a 
great he-ro. 

His school days were much like those of Jef-fer-son. 
He was a young boy when he could read French and Span-ish 
with ease, and was as well hard at work at Greek and Lat-in. 
In 1769 he went to Prince-ton Col-lege, and here, as well as 
when he was at home, Jef-fer-son was a great help to him. 
The old-er man wrote to the boy in the qui-et old col-lege 
town, a-bout the scenes of war ; he told him much of the 
Brit-ish troops in the Bos-ton streets, of young John Ad- 
ams and of Wash-ing-ton. So, when in 1771 he left col-lege, 
he knew a great deal a-bout the strife of the day, and had 
deep, clear thoughts a-bout it. At home he led a qui-et life 
with his books, un-til 1774, then he was put at the head of a 
few men, who were to guard their own town if the Brit-ish 
troops came there. In this post he showed such a wise, 
clear mind and did his part so well that in a short time he 
was put in a high place in his State, and from there in 1779 



26 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



was sent to Con-gress. Jef-fer-son was at this time Gov-ern- 
or of Vir-gin-i-a, and the two men were close, warm friends. 

For twen-ty five years Mad-i-son was one of the first 
men in this land. He had no taste for war, but he soon 
took a high place with those who made the laws of the land. 
One of the great things he did was to help draw up the 
Con-sti-tu-tion of the U-nit-ed States. 

In 1794 this grave and qui-et man mar-ried, as Washing- 
ton and Jef-fer-son had 
done, a young and love-ly 
wid-ow. She was but twen- 
ty-two years old, twen-ty 
years young-er than he, and 
her name was Mrs. Dor-o- 
thy Payne Todd. Lat-er on, 
the folks who grew to love 
this fair la-dy so well, gave 
her the name by which we 
know her to-day — " Dol-ly 
Mad-i-son." She was a 
Quak-er-ess, and so fair and 
sweet was she, in her qui-et 
lit-tle gown of gray, that 
once a friend said to her : 
"Dol-ly, tru-ly thou must 
hide thy face, so ma-ny 
stare at thee." 

For one year af-ter 
his mar-riage, Mad-i-son 
lived at Mont-pel-ier ; then 
life, first in his State, and 
af-ter that, in 1800, as Sec-re-ta-ry of State un-der Jef-fer-son. 




DOLLY PAYNE MADISON. 



a-gain he went in-to pub-lic 



JAMES MAMSOlT. 27 

Now, be-gan the gay life at the White House, for which 
" Dol-ly " Mad-i-son won so much fame. Jef-f er-son's wife 
was dead, and it was the wife of his friend that helped him 
en-ter-tain the White House guests. Well did this love-ly 
la-dy do her part, and in 1808 when, as the wife of the Pres- 
ident, she be-came the real mis-tress of the White House, 
more than ev-er did the peo-ple love her. To-day, of all the 
pic-tures of the Pres-i-dents' wives that hang up-on the 
White House walls, none is more love-ly than that of the 
gay and pretty " Dol-ly Ma£-i-son. w 

Mad-i-son was most of all a man of peace, and yet it was 
while he was in of -fice that the U-nit-ed States was drawn in-to 
the War of 1812. Eng-land, then at war with Prance, said she 
had the right to search A-mer-i-can ships to see if they were 
tak-ing aid to France, A.-mer-i-ca would not give this right 
to Eng-land, and so tht> war be-gan. In 1814 the Brit-ish 
came to the cit-y of Wash-ing-ton, and for the on-ly time in 
A-mer-i-can his-to-ry the Pres-i-dent had to leave his home. 

Mad-i-son, with the Sec-re-ta-ry of State and some 
friends, went to a lit-tle inn near Wash-ing-ton, and here 
they were met by Mrs. Mad-i-son, who had stayed as long 
as she could at the White House to save some things from 
the hands of the Brit-ish. She had brought the great Dec- 
la-ra-tion of In-de-pend-ence, and had cut from its big frame 
the pic-ture of Wash-ing-ton and brought it safe-ly a- way. 
The Brit-ish troops set fire to the White House, the na-vy 
yard, the Cap-i-tol, and in fact the whole town. They left 
in great haste, though, when they heard that our troops 
were on the way, and the next day Mrs. Mad-i-son put on the 
dress of a wash-wo-man, so folks would not know her, and 
made a start for her home, but the British had set fire to 
a bridge she had to cross on the way and then she begged 



UVE8 OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



an A-mer-i-can sol-dier to row he* o-ver the riv-er. H* 
would not do so un-til she told him who she was, and then 
he was ver-y glad to take this brave lit-tle la-dy in his boat. 
On-ly black ash-es marked the spot on which the White House 
had once stood, so she had to go to her sis-ter'shome, where 
the Pres-i-dent soon joined her. 

The Eng-lish troops now tried to take Bal-ti-more, but 
our brave men drove them back ; and when they tried 
to make a raid on New Or-le-ans, Gen-er-al Jack-son and 
his troops fought so hard that the foe could not get in-to 
the cit-y. 

This was the last fight of this war, ana peace was signecj 
at Ghent, De-cem-ber 24th, 1814. From that day Eng-land 
has had to leave our ships a-lone and to treat A-mer-i-ca as 
one of the great nations of the world. 

In 1817 Mad-i-son was not sor-ry to go back to his ol(J 
home, and here ma-ny hap-py years were spent, for the fail 
la-dy of the White House kept o pen house in her owri 
home, and guests from far and near were glad to come 
here. One of Mad-i-son's dear-est friends was old Thom-ag 
Jef-f er-son, who oft-en rode o-ver from his home at Mon-ti- 
cel-lo, which was on-ly thir-ty miles from Mont-pel-ier. 

Mad-i-son wrote a good deal at this time; and once 
a-gain was seen in pub-lic life. In 1829 he was at the head 
of the great change made in all the laws of the whole land, 

He died af-ter a long sick-ness at his home in Mont-pel 
ier on June 28th, 1836. 



JAMES MOKBO& 9» 



JAMES MON-ROE. 

James Mon-eoe was, like Wash-ing-ton, Mad-i-son and 
Jef-fer-son, born in Vir-gin-i-a. Our first Pres-i-dent was 
just twen-ty six years old when, in West-more-land County, 
on A-pril 28th, 1758, was born the boy who was to be the 
fifth Pres-i-dent. His fa-ther, Colo-nel Spense Mon-roe, 
owned a big farm and was quite rich. Lit-tle James was sent 
to good schools and did not have to work to earn the means 
to stay in school. He learned at first to hunt, to skate and 
to swim ; and was good friends with all the boys ; but 
through all the fun and school work came up the talk of 
war ; of the long strife with Eng-land and the fierce red 
men. It was hard for a brave boy to hear such talk and 
yet keep on at his books, and though Mon-roe did go to 
Wil-liam and Mary Col-lege, he did not stay long, for we 
hear of him in 1775 at the camp near Bos-ton. In 1776 we 
see him at the head of a band of men, and from that time 
on he was in the thick of the fight. He fought at White 
Plains and Har-lem Heights, and was so brave that the great 
Wash-ing-ton gave him high praise for his work, and made 
him, when but eight-een years old, a cap-tain in the ar-my. 
At the great fight at Tren-ton he got a bad wound and had 
to rest for some time. In the big fights of the war this 
brave young man was one of the first in the field ; his hopes 
were ev-er high, and he put heart in-to the weak and worn 
men who looked to him for help in the sad years of the war. 
In 1780 he be-gan the stud-y of law with his old friend 



30 



LIVES OP THIS PRESIDENTS. 



Thom-as Jef-fer-son and soon led the bright men of the 

day. 

So good a friend of his was Jef-fer-son, that the home 
to which Mon-roe took his bride,in 1785, was planned for him 
by Jef-fer-son, who, so it is said, al-so gave him the nails to 
build it with. 

In 1794 he was sent to France to look out for A-mer-i- 
ca's rights, but he found talk of war there at that time. 
The peo-ple did not want a king an-y long-er, but wished to 
be-come a free land like A-mer-i-ca, with a pres-i-dent at the 
head ; and Mon-roe, who was a Ke-pub-li-can, took sides 
with the Ke-pub-li-cans in France. The king did not like 
this, and so Mon-roe had to come home at the end of two 
years. 

But he met with a wel-come at home, and his own State 
made him its Gov-ern-or. In 1803 he was once more sent 
to France ; this time to buy the State of Lou-is-i-an-a from 
the French, and he paid Na-po-le-on for this large State 
$15,000,000. 

Twice Mon-roe was sent to Spain and once to Eng-land, 
where his task was to force Eng-land to stop her search of 
A-mer-i-can ships. You know he could not do this, for that 
was the cause of the War of 1812. 

Tired and sad at heart, he came back home, and was 
glad to rest for a while in his own home ; but he was of too 
much use to his coun-try to be i-dle long. Once more, in 
1811, he was made Gov-ern-or of Vir-gin-i-a. 

Then came the "War of 1812 ; and it was Mon-roe, now 
Sec-re-ta-ry of State, who, at the head of a few men, saw 
the Brit-ish land near Wash-ing-ton and sent word to Mad- 
i-son to leave the cit-y. He al-so act-ed as Sec-re-ta-ry of 
War at this time, and so well did he do his part that in 1816 



JAMES MONROE. 



81 



he was named for Pres-i-dent by the Dem-o-crats. He got 
the most votes and so took the first place in our great 
land. 

His first act was to pay off the great debt which the 
War of 1812 had brought on us. He did this in a ver-y short 
time ; and now our trade grew so great that rail-roads were 
built ; and so our first rail-road was made while Mon-roe 
was Pres-i-dent. 




FIRST RAILROAD TRAIN. 



There was a fierce war with the In-di-ans in Flor-i-da 
at this time ; but Gen-er-al Jack-son was sent down there 
and he forced them to lay down their arms and keep the 
peace. 

Just at this time, too, we got Flor-i-da from the King 
of Spain, and gave up Tex-as, af-ter pay-ing a big sum of 
mon-ey to the A-mer-i-cans, who had been robbed by 
Spain. 

Mis-sou-ri came in-to the Un-ion while Mon-roe was 
Pres-i-dent, and there was a fierce storm of words; the 
North said she should not hold slaves after she was a State, 
the South said that she should. 

At last Con-gress gave way to the South-ern States ; 
but made a law that there should be a line drawn through 
the land, north of which no State should hold slaves. 

In 1825 Mon-roe was free to go to his home at Oak Hill, 
Vir-gin4-a, and here he lived un-til 1830. His wife died in 



32 



LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 



that year, and then he went to live with his daugh-ter in 
New York. He died here on the 4th of Ju-ly, 1831, and his 
name is one that the whole land loves and hon-ors. 

He was bur-ied in New York, but on the one hun-dredth 
an-ni-ver-sa-ry of his birth, his bod-y was tak-en to Rich- 
mond, Vir-gin-i-a, and a hand-some stone raised o-ver his 
grave. 




JAMES MONROE. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS- 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



33 



JOHN QUIN-CY AD-AMS. 

The lit-tle boy who be-came our sixth Pres-i-dent led a 
life not at all like that of an-y oth-er of the boys of whom 
you have read. His fa-ther was John Ad-ams, our sec-ond 
Pres-i-dent, and when, on Ju-ly 11th, 1767, lit-tle John Quin-cy 
Ad-ams was born in the old home at Brain-tree, Mass., his 
great fa-ther was al-read-y speak-ing brave-ly for his coun- 
try's rights in the cit-y of Bos-ton. In 1772 the f am-i-ly moved 
to Bos-ton, and lit-tle John, for two years, saw, as the oth-er 
boys did, the Brit-ish sol-diers in their bright red coats on 
pa-rade in the Bos-ton streets, and heard on all sides talk of 
war with Eng-land. He saw a lit-tle of real war, too ; for 
when he was eight years old, his moth-er took him on top 
of a high hill, called Be-mis Hill, from which h^ saw the 
smoke and heard the roar of can-non in that aw-f ul bat-tie 
of Bunk-er Hill. When, in 1776, the Brit-ish left Bos-ton, 
this lit-tle lad of nine years used to oft-en ride on horse- 
back in and out of the city to bring home the lat-est news. 
This was a ride of twen-ty-two miles from the old home at 
Brain-tree, where Mrs. Ad-ams had gone when herhus-band 
went to Con-gress, and I think it took a pret-ty brave and 
strong boy to ride all those long miles a-lone. 

When John Ad-ams went to France to try and get her aid 
for A-mer-i-ca, he took with him his lit-tle boy, then ten years 
old. It was a rough, hard trip ; for, not on-ly were there 
fierce winds which lashed the waves in-to f u-ry, but they 
were chased by Brit-ish ships, for Eng-land did not want 

3 



34 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



John Ad-ams to get this help from France. But they 
reached Par-is in safe-ty, and lit-tle John was at once 
put in a French school. He on-ly stayed for a-bout a 
year and went back home with his fa-ther in the spring. 
Now for three months he was with his moth-er, and then 
in No-vem-ber he and some oth-er boys who were placed in 
his fa-ther's care, all start-ed for France, where they were 
to be put in a good school. 

This trip was hard-er than the oth-er one, for the big 
ship, " Sen-si-ble, " sprang a leak, and af-ter some days of 
great per-il, they were glad to go to the near-est land, which 
was Spain ; and now there was a long, hard trip by land 
be-fore France could be reached. They had sailed on Nov. 
13th, 1779, and it was not un-til Feb. 5th, 1780, that the 
lit-tle parity reached Par-is. 

For two years now our lit-tle lad was hard at work 
with his books in Par-is ; then his fa-ther was sent to the 
Neth-er-lands as A-mer-i-can Min-is-ter, and he took his lit-tle 
son there and placed him in a school in Am-ster-dam ; from 
here he went to the U-ni-ver-si-ty at Ley-den, where he 
stayed un-til Ju-ly, 1781. 

He was now on-ly four-teen years old ; but you see he 
had been in so ma-ny lands, that he could speak as the 
folks did in those strange lands, and this was a rare thing 
in those days. In 1781 Fran-cis Da-na, then the A-mer-i- 
can Min-is-ter to Eus-sia, need-ing some one to help him in 
his work, sent to Ley-den for this young boy. They passed 
through Ger-ma-ny on the way to Eus-sia, and here John 
Quin-cy learned some-thing of an-oth-er new land. Then, 
af-ter a year in Eus-sia, he left Mr. Da-na and stud-ied for 
a year in Swe-den. The next spring he went to his fa-ther 
in Hol-land, and then went to Par-is with him, and was 



JOHN QTJINCY ADAMS. 



35 



pres-ent when the trea-ty of peace be-tween Eng-land and 
A-mer-i-ca end-ed the War of In-de-pend-ence. 

For two years more he stud-ied a-broad, and then sailed 
for home in May, 1783. He at once en-tered the jun-ior 
class at Har-vard Col-lege and grad-u-a-ted with next to 
the high-est hon-ors in 1787. Then he took up law, as his 
fa-ther had done, and be-gan to prac-tise in Bos-ton. He 
made few friends ; folks did not love him as they had 
ei-ther Mad-i-son or Mon-roe, but he was al-ways known to 
be a man of great pow-er, and of great learning; and 
know-ing so much of other lands, he was just the man to 
be sent as A-mer-i-can Min-is-ter to these coun-tries. 

In 1794 Wash-ing-ton sent him to Hol-land, and in 1796 
he was sent to Ber-lin. 

"When, in 1801, Ad-a.ns came back home, it was to find 
new hon-ors wait-ing for him. He was sent first to the 
State Sen-ate and then to Con-gress. You see the steps by 
which our Pres-i-dents rose to pow-er were much the same 
in ev-er-y case. A du-ty well done in a small place led to 
some-thing a lit-tle high-er, and so on to the great-est hon-or 
of all — the Pres-i-dent's chair. 

The State of Mas-sa-chu-setts was ver-y proud of John 
Quin-cy A-dams ; not only was he a great states-man and the 
son of the man whom they all loved, but he was, as well, 
a fine schol-ar, and a bril-liant speak-er. In 1809 he was 
sent a-broad a-gain for his coun-try ; this time to Rus-sia, 
where he had not been since he was a boy of four-teen ; in 
1815 he was sent to France, but he was here on-ly a few 
months, when war broke out in France, and all the min- 
isters from oth-er coun-tries were called a- way ; he went at 
once to Eng-land, and here he had a much more pleasant 
time than his father had when he went there as the first 



30 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Amer-ican min-is-ter ; the U-nit-ed States was now known 
as a big strong coun-try, and no one dared to be rude to her 
min-is-ter. In 1817 his own land felt the need of the great 
man who had served her so well a-broad, and he was called 
home to be-come Sec-re-ta-ry of State. No man was so well 
fit-ted for this post as he ; for there were ma-ny men from 
the lands a-cross the sea, now com-ing and go-ing in the 
cap-i-tal of the U-nit-ed States, to talk o-ver great ques-tions ; 
there were new states com-ing in-to the Un-i-on ; and oth-er 
lands were al-ways try-ing to gain a lit-tle pow-er here ; so 
John Quin-cy Ad-ams, who not on-ly was a great schol-ar, 
and a fine law-yer, but al-so knew well so ma-ny lands be- 
sides his own, was just the man to help Pres-i-dent Mon-roe 
through his eight years of work. 

He al-so was the man best suit-ed for the Pres-i-dent's 
chair, at the end of Mon-roe's term of of-fice. Not once, 
while Ad-ams was in Wash-ing-ton work-ing hard, did he 
f or-get his old f a-ther, watch-ing, in his home at Quin-cy, the 
bu-sy life of his great son. Once ev-er-y year he went to 
the qui-et old home, and told his f a-ther of the life in Wash- 
ing-ton, in which the old-er man had once held so great a 
place. 

At the age of six-ty-eight, Ad-ams went back to his 
home in Quin-cy, but in 1830 once more he was sent to Con- 
gress, and for six-teen years he kept his seat there ; he grew 
old and gray serv-ing his na-tive land ; he made bit-ter en-e« 
mies, but ma-ny warm friends ; he feared no one, and his 
voice was al-ways for the free-dom of this great land. On 
No-vem-ber 19th, 1846, he had a stroke of par-al-y-sis while 
walk-ing in Bos-ton ; but three months later we saw him 
a-gain in Wash-ing-ton, and tak-ing his old seat in Con-gress. 
As the gray old man came feeb-ly in-to the hall, ev-er-y man 



JOHN" QUINCY ADAMS. 



37 



pres-ent rose to his feet, and so stood un-til he took his seat. 
He was too weak now to talk, and on-ly once more did he 
try to speak his mind on one of the great ques-tions of the 
day. This was on Feb-ru-a-ry 21st, 1848. He rose to speak, 
, but fell in-to the arms of a man near him ; at once they 
took him in-to a cloak-room, and sent for his wife. For two 
days did he lay there, and then, on the morn-ing of Feb-ru- 
a-ry 23d, his great soul took its flight. His last words were : 
" This is the last of life, and I am con-tent." 



38 



LIVES OF THE ^RESIDENTS. 



AN-DREW JACK-SOK 

The boy who was to be our sev-enth Pres-i-dent did not 
lead the sort of life, as boy or man, that the oth-er Presi- 
dents did. He was the son of a poor I-rish-man who came 
here from Ire-land in 1765. He was born on March 15th, 
1767, in a small place in South Car-o-li-na, called the Wax- 
haw Set-tle-ments. Poor and mean was the log house in 
which he first saw the light, and when his fa-ther died, 
which was when An-drew was a wee baby, the life of the 
lit-tle home was hard-er yet. His moth-er was a brave, 
good wo-man, and so well did she do her hard part in life 
that she was loved by all who knew her, and was known 
far and near as " Aunt Bet-ty." 

Andrew was a great care to her when a boy, for, full of 
life and fun, he did not care for books, and was at the head 
in all sorts of wild sport. He was ev-er read-y for a fight 
with boys who made him an-gry ; the small boys looked to 
him for help in any strife with boys big-ger than they ; and 
so strong was he, or read-y to knock a boy down for a real 
or a f an-cied wrong, that they soon found it best to give him 
his own way, and let him take his place as lead-er a-mong 
them ; when he was at the head all went well. 

He was just nine years old when the Dec-la-ra-tion of 
In-de-pend-ence was signed, and then came four years of 
war with Eng-land. In 1780 this war was car-ried into the 
South, and on May 29th a number of Brit-ish sol-diers un-der 
Colo-nel Tarle-ton killed and wounded over 200 of the men and 

boys from the Wax-haw set-tle-ments. A-mong those who 

/ 




ANDREW JACKSON. 



ANDREW JACKSON. 



39 



helped to care for the hurt and dy-ing men were Mrs. Jack- 
son and her boys. An-drew was on-ly four-teen when he fell 
in-to the hands of the Brit-ish, and he, with o-ver one hun- 
dred sick and dy-ing men, was kept for days in a dir-ty pen. 
with no beds, lit-tle to eat and on-ly stale wa-ter to drink. 
To make things worse, small-pox broke out and An-drew 
was one of those who had it. His brave moth-er was at 
last a-bie to free him, and it was ow-ing to her lov-ing care 
that he did not die at this aw-f ul time. 

Af-ter he was well e-nough to be left, his moth-er, who 
was ver-y sor-ry for the poor A-mer-ican sol-diers, went to 
Charles-ton to take care of those who were sick and wound* 
ed here. Just as she had be-gun her no-ble work she was 
ta-ken sick and died. 

Soon af-ter her death came the good news of peace ; and 
now young An-drew be-gan to pay some heed to his books, 
with the hope of stud-y-ing law. He al-so taught school for 
a while, though he could not have been a ver-y good teach- 
er, for he nev-er learned how to spell ver-y well him-self. 
Still, in 1787, we find he has learned e-nough to take up the 
prac-tice of law, and he be-gan this work in Nash-ville, Ten- 
nes-see ; and now we see the boy who had been the lead-er 
in boy-ish sports, games and fights, be-come at once a 
lead-er a-mong men. He was tall and quite good look-ing, 
with bright blue eyes and red-dish hair, and he was full of 
fun and life ; he rode horse-back well, and knew how to 
shoot straight ; and a-bove all he was a brave man, a-fraid of 
noth-ing. 

In 1788 he was giv-en a place in which he had to try 
for the State all men who had done wrong and it need-ed, 
in those wild days and in that new land, a brave man for 
such a work, for he would make ma-ny foes, both a-mong 



40 LIVES OF THE PKESIDENTS. 

the bad white men and the In-di-ans. His work took him 
from Nash-ville to Jones-bor-ough, and here the In-di-ans 
were ver-y strong and ver-y cru-el, kill-ing and rob-bing the 
white men and wo-men, and e-ven the lit-tle ba-bies in their 
moth-ers' arms. Hear-ing and see-ing day by day more and 
more of this sav-age war-fare, al-ways in dan-ger of be-ing 
killed by night or day by some In-di-an hid-ing be-hind a 
tree or house, Jack-son learned to know the In-di-ans and 
their hab-its bet-ter than most men did, so was read-y to 
fight them in their own way in a few years. 

He made his home in Nash-ville and built up a good 
law prac-tice. He grew in pow-er so fast that in 1797 he 
was sent as the first man from Ten-nes-see to Con-gress. 
He went all the way from his home to Phil-a-del-phi-a, a dis- 
tance of 800 miles, on horse-back. In 1798 we see him 
a-gain at home as Judge of the Su-preme Court, and here 
he stayed un-til 1804. Then came four-teen years of peace 
for the land, and a hap-py home life for him. A-mong 
oth-er things which Jack-son did at this time was to build 
a large log store in which he kept all sorts of things which 
both the white men and the In-di-ans want-ed. His home, 
which was called "The Her-mit-age," was a fine house for 
those days, and in later years it grew as well known as 
Mt. Ver-non and Mon-ti-cel-lo. Jack-son was all through 
his life a man who would stand up for his own way, if it 
led to strife with his best friend, and more than once he 
fought du-els to the death. In Con-gress he would, when he 
rose to speak, some-times choke with blind rage if he could 
not make his point and force men to yield to him. 

Af-ter years of peace came the "War of 1812, and from 
that hour Jack-son's name was first in the minds of men. 
He showed great skill in his fights with the red men, and 



He al-so taught school for a while 
(Page 39) 



(Lives of the Presidents.) 



i 



ANDREW JACKSOK. 



41 



won much fame in a fierce fight with the Creeks, a bad 
tribe of In-di-ans in Al-a-ba-ma. 

He could force men to do as he said ; the young men of 
that day looked up-on him with awe and fear, but rushed 
to fill his ranks and serve un-der him. 

In 1815 he won the day at New Or-le-ans, and put the 
Brit-ish troops to flight with great loss of life. At the end 
of the war, back home went Jack-son for the rest of which 
he stood in sore need ; but, in 1818, strife with the Sem-i- 
nole In-di-ans in Flor-i-da came up, and Jack-son was sent 
there. 

At this time Spain owned Flor-i-da, and it was both Span- 
ish troops and In-di-an foes that Jack-son had to meet, but he 
won his way, and at last made Spain yield her rights in Flor- 
i-da and sign a peace. In 1823 she sold Flor-i-da to us for 
$5,000,000 ; not such a great sum when we think what a 
rich and great place this " Land of Flow-ers " is. Jack-son 
was now put at the head of things in Flor-i-da, and the 
hard-est part of his work was to keep peace in the bad 
tribe of Sem-i-nole In-di-ans. "With their chief Os-ce-o-la at 
their head they would creep out from the woods and 
swamps of Flor-i-da, rush on the homes of the white men, 
and burn them to the ground, and then dash back to the 
woods, where they could safe-ly hide. At the end of four 
years Jack-son was glad to go home to the Her-mit-age ; 
here he and his wife led a qui-et life and kept up ma-ny of 
the ways of their young days, though now they were quite 
rich. Af-ter din-ner, they would sit, one on each side of the 
great big wood fire, in the large hall, and smoke their old 
pipes, with the long stems, just as they had in their log 
cab-in of long a-go. But the great gen-er-al could not live 
this qui-et life long ; in 1823 he was sent to Con-gress ; and 



42 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



here lie met with high hon-or. On New Year's Day, 1824, 
the great men of the day gave him the pock-et tel-e-scope 
that Wash-ing-ton had owned ; a year from the day on 
which the Bat-tie of New Or-le-ans was fought, John Quin-cy 
Ad-ams gave him a great feast, at which were men, who 
held high rank here and in oth-er lands ; and on the day 
that he was fif-ty-sev-en years old, Pres-i-dent Mon-roe gave 
him a gold badge for his brave acts in his fights for his 
coun-try. In 1828 this rough, but brave and kind, old man, 
was made pres-i-dent ; and now he stood up for his own 
way, just as he had in the wars of his land, and when he 
was but a boy. His first act was to stop some states in the 
South from leav-ing the Un-ion. John C. Cal-houn was at 
the head of a band of men, who felt that the North had 
more rights than the South ; had more than its share of 
wealth and land ; so rose the wish to set up a rule just for 
the South. " But," said Jack-son, " if one state goes out 
oth-ers will ; and our great land will be a ru-in." So he 
stopped this plan, just in time. 

All the years that Jack-son was pres-i-dent, our great 
land gained in strength ; new rail-roads were built ; and 
new steam-boats ; the land grew rich year by year. 

In 1824 the slaves in Mex-i-co were set free, and Tex-as 
came in-to the Un-ion. 

On the whole, Jack-son's term was a good one for the 
land ; and so well did the peo-ple like him, that he is the 
on-ly pres-i-dent of whom it has been said that he was 
bet-ter liked when he went out of of-fice than when he 
went in. 

The last years of his life were spent at " The Her-mit- 
age," where he died on June 8th, 1845. 



THE LIFE OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 



43 



THE LIFE OF MAE-TIN VAN BIT-REN. 

The place in which Mar-tin Van Bu-ren was born was 
far from the homes of the oth-er boys who be-came our 
pres-i-dents ; and his life, as a boy, was not one bit like theirs. 
His fa-ther and m oth-er were Dutch ; Hoes was his moth-er's 
queer name ; and the name of the small town, in which, on 
De-cem-ber 5th, 1782, he was born, was Dutch too — Kin-der- 
hook ; the lit-tle town was on the Hud-son Riv-er, way up 
in New York state. His fa-ther kept a good inn, and had 
a small farm ; so he could send Mar-tin to good schools : 
Mar-tin was so quick and bright at his books that he took up 
the study of law when he was four-teen ; and at twen-ty- 
one he was a law-yer and at work in Kin-der-hook. He 
was a man who made friends with great ease : and as he 
was a good law-yer as well, his state soon saw that he was 
the man to speak for it at Wash-ing-ton. So in 1821 he 
was sent to Con-gress ; then in 1828 he was made govern- 
or of New York state ; and this was a big step toward the 
pres-i-dent's chair ; he was sec-re-tary of state when Jack-son 
was pres-i-clent ; and in 1837 he took the oath of of-fice, 
and be-came pres-i-dent. 

He was in of-fice on-ly one term ; and those four years 
were hard ones for him. 

Just at this time the men in Can-a-da tried to bo free 
from Eng-land, and have home-rule ; and some of our men 
took sides with them ; this made Eng-land an-gry of course ; 
and if Van Bu-ren had not put a stop to such things, we 



44 



LIVES OF THE PKESIDENTS. 



should have had war once more ; but he said all who tried 
to give aid to Can-a-da should be sent to jail ; and so the 
fear of war was put down. 

At the end of Van Bu-ren's first term some want-ed 
him to take the chair a-gain ; but more want-ed Gen-er-al 
Har-ri-son, who had made a great name in the In-di-an wars. 
Van Bu-ren was rich, and Har-ri-son was poor ; and this 
race for the pres-i-dent's chair was called the " Log Cab-in 
a-gainst the White House." Af-ter Har-ri-son took the chair, 
Van Bu-ren went back to his home at Kin-der-hook, where 
he lived in qui-et, until, in 1848, he was once more put up 
for pres-i-dent ; but James K. Polk had more votes than he, 
and so won the e-lec-tion. 

In 1853 Van Bu-ren and his son went to Eu-rope, where 
they stayed two years. He spent the rest of his life at his 
old home, where he died on Ju-ly 24th, 1862. 



MARTIN VAN BUREN, 



WILLIAM H. HARRISON; 



WILLIAM HENRY HARBISON. 



45 



WIL-LIAM HE2T-RY HAR-RI-SON. 

Wil-liam Hen-ry Har-ri-son was born in Berke-ly, Vir- 
gin-i-a, on Feb-ru-a-ry 9th, 1773; his fath-er, Ben-ja-min 
Har-ri-son, was not a rich man, but lived at ease on a small 
farm ; he was a man of much force in his state, and was 
at one time its gov-ern-or. He was a brave, strong man, 
and taught his small son to be like him ; now while lit-tle 
Wil-liam was hard at work at school, he heard much talk 
of the In-di-an wars ; and his heart was full of long-ing to 
fight these cru-el foes of the white in on. 

So, though he went to Hamp-den Syd-ney Col-lege, he did 
not stay long, but left to join the ar-my. He was such a 
brave fight-er that, when he was twen-ty-one, Wash-ing-ton 
put him in charge of the troops at Fort Wash-ing-ton, just 
the place where the In-di-ans were strong-est and most 
cru-el. 

Ma-jor Gen-er-al Wayne was at the head of the ar-my, 
and so rash and fear-less was he, that his troops called him 
" Mad An-tho-ny." He knew well how to fight the red men 
though, and in 3794= beat them in a fierce fight, on the spot 
where the cit-y of De-troit now stands. So brave was 
young Har-ri-son at this time, that he was made a cap-tain ; 
for six years Har-ri-son was in the heat of the In-di-an 
wars; and learned all the sav-age ways of war; then he 
went home to rest, but was soon sent to Congress. So well 
did he do his work here, that In-di-an-a now chose him for 
gov-ern-or ; and here he was so much liked that he kept his 



40 



LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 



seat three terms ; the hard-est task that he had to do while 
gov-ern-or was to keep peace with the In-di-ans ; and side 
by side with his name, stands that of a great and good 
In-di-an chief Te-cum-seh ; for years these two men tried to 
help the In-di-ans and teach them to live in peace ; but at 
last the hate of the red men for the whites who were forc- 
ing them from their lands, end-ed in a great fight at Tip- 
pe-ca-noe, where the In-di-ans lost the bat-tie. So brave had 
Har-ri-son been in this fight, that he was made a gen-er-al ; 
and in the War of 1812 was put at the head of the ar-my. 
At the close of the war, the brave old In-di-an fight-er went 
to live on his farm at South Bend, In-di-an-a, in the then 
state of O-hi-o ; but he was too great a man to live a qui-et 
life, and was sent to Con-gress twice and once a-broad in 
his coun-try's serv-ice. Then in 1836, he ran for Pres-i-dent, 
but did not get the most votes ; four years la-ter he was 
put up once more, and he and John Ty-ler won by a big 
vote. It was in this race for Pres-i-dent, that the song was 
sung, whose cho-rus you hear to-day: " Tip-pe-ca-noe and 
Ty-ler, too." 

On the 4th of March, 1841, Wil-liam Hen-ry Har-ri-son, 
the old In-di-an fight-er, now six-ty-eight years old, came 
from years of qui-et home life, to take vCp the cares and 
wor-ries of a pres-i-dent's life, but the task was too much 
for him, and a month af-ter-ward, on A-pril 4th, 1841, the 
brave old man died. 



JOHK TYLEK. 



47 



JOHN TY-LER 

As a boy, the life of John Ty-ler was much the same 
as that of the boys of to-day. He was born on March 29th, 
1790, in Charles Cit-y, Vir-gin-i-a, at a time when the whole 
land was at peace. No talk of the red men came to his 
young ears ; and no fear fell like a dark cloud over the fun 
and play of his boy-hood. He was the son of a man who 
had for friends the great men of his day ; — Wash-ing-ton 
and Ben-ja-min Har-ri-son were warm, close friends of old 
John Ty-ler ; and he was at one time Gov-ern-or of Vir- 
gin-i-a. Young J ohn was sent to school when he was a very- 
small boy ; and, though he was fond of sports and games, 
he kept hard at work at his books and won a high place at 
school. He was a mere boy when he could en-ter Wil-liam 
and Ma-ry Col-lege ; and he left in 1806 at the head of his 
class. He at once took up law with his fa-ther, and soon 
showed the good stuff of which he was made. Clear and 
quick was his mind, swift to think and feel ; and his words 
came as fast as his thoughts. He rose with great, quick 
strides towards the first place in the land. In 1825 he was 
made Gov-ern-or of Vir-gin-i-a ; and in 1827, was sent to Con- 
gress, where he kept his seat for six years ; these were years 
of strife as to the slave trade, and there were fierce, hard 
words and harsh thoughts be-tween the men of the North 
those of the South. Ty-ler was at home for a few years af- 
ter he left Con-gress, and took a high place as a law-yer. In 
1836 he was put up with Har-ri-son in the race forthepres- 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



i-dent's chair. But it was not till 1840 that he won this 
place ; then, as the vice-pres-i-dent had not a great deal to 
do, Ty-ler went home to Wil-liams-burg. It was here that 
the sad news of Har-ri-son's death was brought to him, and 
he at once went on to Wash-ing-ton. Here he found he had 
a hard task ; for he and his Con-gress did not think the 
same on the great ques-tions of the day and were ev-er at 
strife. One of his first acts was to put down a state war in 
Mis-sou-ri. A Mor-mon, by the name of Smith, and a band 
of men who thought as he did went down there to live ; folks 
there did not like this and tried to drive them out of the 
state, but this was a hard thing to do, for there were a-bout 
12,000 Mor-mons. At last, Ty-ler sent troops there to put 
down the strife, and the Mor-mons were sent to H-li-nois. 
They were here but a short time when the same old strife 
a-rose, and then they fled to the lands in the far west — where 
they are to-day, in the state of Utah War broke out in 
Tex-as while Ty-ler was in the chair, and af-ter fierce fights 
be-tween the Tex-ans and Mex-i-cans the Tex-ans won, and 
were at the head of the state. They asked at once to come 
in-to the Un-ion, and in 1845 this great state came in. In the 
last year of Ty-ler's rule Sam-u-el F. B. Morse found out how 
to send words in just a flash of time through miles and miles 
of space ; and you chil-dren know well that the fine wire 
stretched from one great pole to the next on which the 
quick news was sent was called the " tel-e-graph." 

At the end of Ty-ler's first term, James Knox Polk had 
the most votes, and so took the pres-i-dent's chair ; and this 
news was the first that was sent o-ver the tel-e-graph wires. 




JOHN TYLER. 



JAMES K. POLK. 



JAMES KNOX i'ULK. 



49 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 

As a boy James Knox Polk led a life that would please 
a good ma-ny of the boys of to-day. He was born in Meck- 
len-burg County, North Car-o-li-na, on No-vem-ber 2d, 1705 ; 
but in 1806 his fa-ther went to Duck Farm, Ten-nes-see, and 
lit tle James, e-lev-en years old, was of much help in the 
new home. Where the day's work took the big, strong fa- 
ther, there went the small son ; if there was a long ride to 
get food or clothes from some big town, lit-tle James could 
help care for the hors-es and when his fa-ther and oth-er 
men, for weeks at a time, were in the great, wild woods, 
hunt-ing, mak-ing new roads, or helping each oth-er 
build the log cab-ins, which were the homes of these 
ear-ly set-tiers, James would be there too, cook-ing meals 
and keep-ing the camp neat and bright for the men who 
came back tired and hun-gry at night. 

So years passed by with much work in the o-pen air 
and lit-tle of stud-y or books ; but when James was four- 
teen years old it was time that he should earn mon-ey. 

He was not a big, strong boy ; he could not stand rough, 
hard work on a farm ; he did not love to hunt ; he had no 
taste for war ; so he was put in a small store, that he might 
learn to man-age a big store when he grew old. 

Here he first saw some books, and his love for them 
a- woke ; for weeks and months he worked a-lone with an-y 
book or pa-per he could find. 

At last his fa-ther took him from the store and sent 

4 



so 



LIVES OP THE PEESIDE1STTS. 



him to school ; he was now eight-een, but he was so quick 
to learn, so bright and smart, that five years from this time 
he left the U-ni-ver-si-ty of North Car-o-li-na at the head of 
his class. 

"When he came back to Duck Riv-er, not on-ly was his 
fa-ther proud of his boy, but all Ten-nes-see knew that he 
was one of the bright-est young men in the state. 

Now, just at this time, Gen-er-al Jack-son was fight- 
ing so brave-iy a-gainst the In-di-ans and all the boys of 
Ten-nes-see were as proud of this great he-ro as the boys of 
Vir-gin-i-a had been of Wash-ing-ton. In 1819, when young 
James Polk went to Nash-ville, Ten-nes-see, to take up law, 
he was near Jack-son's home ; and he and the great Gen- 
er-al be-came fast friends. It was ow-ing to Jack-son's 
help that, in 1824, Polk, then a bright young law-yer, took 
his first pub-lic step and was sent to the state leg-is-la-ture. 

He a-rose so fast in the love and trust of his state that 
he was sent to Con-gress when on-ly thir-ty years old ; and 
here he stayed for thir-teen years. 

In 1840 he went back to his home at Grun-dy's Hill in 
Nash-yille, hav-ing made a great name in "Wash-ing-ton ; 
not once did he lose his hold on the great ques-tions of the 
day, e-ven while here at home ; and in 1845 he was chos-en 
pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States. 

While he was in of-fice, once more the U-nit-ed States 
was at war, and this war is known as the " Mex-i-can War." 
Its cause was this : — 

Our peo-ple in Mex-i-co said that a big tract of land down 
there was theirs ; the Mex-i-cans laid claim to it too ; so 
Gen-er-al Tay-lor went down to see that our rights were 
looked af-ter. 

In the first fight he won, and lost but nine men ; then 



JAMES KNOX POI/K. 



51 



he laid siege to their great cit-y of Mon-te-rey, and af-ter a 
hard fight took the town. 

That same year Gen-er-al Scott took the cit-y of Ve-ra 
Cruz ; on Sep-tem-ber 14th, 1847, the A-mer-i-can troops took 
the cit-y of Mex-i-co, and the long war was at an end. 

In 1848 came the news of great gold mines in Cal-i-for- 
ni-a ; and men went in such num-bers to this state that 
the ■ 4 Gold Fe-ver of 1849 " is a well known term to-day. 

While Polk was in the chair, three new states came 
in; and two of them were free states; that is, no slaves 
could be kept there ; just at this time some men formed a 
band, and said that no slaves should be kept in an-y new 
state which the U-nit-ed States should gain. 

In 1849 Polk went home to Nash-ville, Ten-nes-see ; he 
was on-ly fif-ty-eight years old ; but was so worn out with 
years of work that he lived but a few months af-ter he 
got home ; he died on the 15th of June, in the same year. 



LIVES OF TEE PRESIDENTS. 



ZACH-A-RY TAY-LOR. 

Zach-a-ry Tay-lor was born in Vir-gin-i-a, on No-vem- 
ber 24th, 1784 ; but when he was a small boy his fa-ther 
went to live in Ken-tuck-y ; and long af-ter the rest of the 
land was at peace this state was the scene of such fierce 
fights with the In-di-ans that it was known as " The dark 
and blood-y ground." It is not strange that this boy, who 
lived at a time when wo-men as well as men had to know 
how to load and fire guns, so that they could help to keep 
the red men from their homes, should have grown up to be 
a brave, strong man. 

As a boy he went to good schools, but cared far more 
for the tales of war which his brave fa-ther told him than 
he did for his books ; he did love books which told of great 
fights and brave men, and read all that he could get. When 
he was just of age he went to war, in place of a friend, and 
was so brave and fear-less that he soon took a high place. 

He was in the great fight of Tip-pe-ca-noe ; and all 
through the War of 1812 he showed great skill in his fights 
with the red men ; — well he knew all their tricks and modes 
of war. He gained great fame in Flor-i-da, when he was 
sent there to make the Sem-i-nole In-di-ans keep the peace. 
For years had this tribe of In-di-ans made war on the white 
men ; their chief, Os-ce-o-la, had, years a-go, gone to one of 
the forts with his wife, who was a slave girl ; he had been 
put in chains, and she held at the fort. In his rage, he had 
sworn to lead his men in war, when he could get to them ; 
at last his chance had come, and he had fled by night from 




ZACHARY TAYLOR. 




MILLARD FILLMORE. 



ZACHARY TAYLOR 63 

the fort. To rouse his tribe and hurl them at the whites, 
was his first thought ; and long and cru-el were the fights 
that went on for years. At last Tay-lor was sent to Mor- 
i-da ; and now a trick was played on this great chief of the 
In-di-ans ; with a flag of truce, he came to the fort to talk 
with the gen-er-al ; and by the or-ders of the gen-er-al, he 
was held there a pris-on-er ; he was sent, at last, to Fort 
Moul-trie in Charles-ton har-bor, and there, in the year 1838, 
he died. With their chief dead, the Sem-i-nole In-di-ans had 
no heart for war ; and soon the few red men left of this 
great, fierce tribe were put far a-way from each oth-er, in 
new states, and there was peace in Flor-i-da. 

Gen-er-al Tay-lor won great f ame in the Mex-i-can War ; 
in 1847 he won the fight of Bu-e-na Vis-ta, which took place 
on Wash-ing-ton's birth-day ; and he won too the fights of 
Pa-lo Al-to and Mon-te-rey. On Sep-tem-ber 24th, 1847, our 
troops took the cit-y of Mex-i-co, and the war was brought 
to an end. As Tay-lor went home to Ba-ton Rouge, he met 
with praise, at each place he passed ; folks came in crowds 
to see the great he-ro ; cheers filled the air ; flags were raised 
and guns were fired ; he was the i-dol of the land. His men 
too were fond of him, for all through the war he had been 
kind and good to them, and shared their hard life. He was 
such a he-ro to the whole land, that it is not strange that 
he was named for the next pres-i-dent, and got the most 
votes. He took the chair of state in 1849, but the brave old 
man came in just at the time when the strife a-bout slaves 
was at its height ; and the cares of the of-fice were too much 
for him, as they had been for Har-ri-son. On Ju-ly 4th, 
1850, there was a great time in Wash-ing-ton, in which he 
took part ; but his health was too weak to stand this strain ; 
and in the midst of his work, on Ju-ly 9th, 1850, the brave 
old In-di-an fight-er died* 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS* 



MIL-LARD FILL-MORE. 

In a log ca-bin way out in the western part of New 
York State, deep in the dense, wild woods, was born, on 
Jan-u-a-ry 7th, 1800, the boy who was to be the thir-teenth 
pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States. His fa-ther had gone 
there from Ver-mont, to get a- way from the In-di-ans, who 
gave no peace in his old home ; and no house stood near-er 
than four miles to the lit-tle home he had built in the wild 
new land ; there was no school ; and if there had been 
lit-tle Mil-lard had not much time to go ; for he was ver-y 
young, when he was taught to earn mon-ey and help in the 
lit-tle home. He learned how to make cloth from the soft 
white wool ; and was hard at work, in this way, till he was 
nine-teen years old ; then a love of books came to him ; and 
a law-yer took note of him and gave him such aid that he 
soon took a high place in the law-stud-ies. When he was 
twen-ty-two, he went to Buf-fa-lo, and taught school, to 
help pay his way, as he went on with the stud-y of law. 
He was bright and quick, and, in 1823, he be-gan to prac-tise 
law and soon rose to such a high place in the state bar that 
his state sent him to Con-gress. Here his work was done 
so well that he was made vice-pres-i-dent, when Tay-lor 
took the pres-i-dent's seat; and on his death be-came pres- 
i-dent. 

While he was in the chair one of his aids was the great 
Dan-iel Web-ster, who looked af-ter the laws of all the 
states. He had been in of -flee but a short time, when a 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 



66 



band of men tried to get Cu-ba from Spain ; but they were 
soon put down. He was in of -flee one term, and then went 
home to Buf-fa-lo, and took up the prac-tice of law a-gain. 
In 1855 he went to Eu-rope, where he stayed for one year ; 
he then came home to lead a qui-et life, full of stud-y, till 
his death on March 8th, 1874. 



LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 



FRANK-LIN PIERCE. 

A brave sol-dier in the War of the Rev-o-lu-tion was 
Ben-ja-min Pierce, the f a-ther of the boy who was to be our 
f our-teenth pres-i-dent ; and it was in the old town of Hills- 
bor-ough, New Hamp-shire, that, on No-vem-ber 22d, 1804, 
Frank-lin Pierce was born. The f a-ther was a big strong 
man, fond of sports and fun of all kinds and much liked 
by all ; he was the chief man in Hills-bor-ough, and was at 
one time gov-ern-or of his state. In such a home it is not 
hard to see that the life of lit-tle Frank-lin would be full of 
work and play as well. He was sent to good schools, and 
was just six-teen when he went to Bow-do-in Col-lege. He 
was full of fun, and at once took the lead in the col-lege 
life ; but he worked hard at his books too ; in 1824 he left 
col-lege, and took up the stud-y of law, and soon be-came 
one of the bar. He was now at his old home in Hills-bor- 
ough, and folks felt that he was a man of brains and great 
force ; he was sent to Con-gress, and held high of-fice in his 
state while he was still a young man ; and in the Mex-i-can 
War he showed him-self as brave a man as his f a-ther had 
been. At last, in 1853, he was made pres-i-dent. At this 
time, the strife as to the slave trade was at its height ; 
some states wished to have slaves, while some held it 
wrong. At last Con-gress made a law that all new states 
should do as they pleased. The first " World's Fair " was 




FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 



PIEKCE. 



87 



held in New York, just at this time, in a great hall made of 
glass, which was known as " The Crys-tal Pal-ace. 1 * 

Pierce was in of -flee one term ; at the end of that time 
he went back home to Con-cord, Mas-sa-chu-setts, where he 
lived a qui-et life un-til his death, on Oc-to-ber 8th, 1867, 



68 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



JAMES BU-OHAN-AN. 

A strong, brave, young man from Ire-land was the 
fa-ther of our fif-teenth pres-i-dent. He had come here in 
1783, and bought a small farm in Penn-syl-va-ni-a ; so well 
did he do that he soon bought a store as well ; and when, 
on A-pril 23d, 1791, at Cove Gap, lit-tle James was born, his 
fa-ther was quite a rich man. He sent his son to the best 
schools and he was just six-teen years old when he went to 
Dick-in-son col-lege. Here he took first place with ease. In 
1809, when he left col-lege, he be-gan the stud-y of law. In 
the War of 1812 he served in the ar-my ; and at the close of 
the war his state chose him to help make her laws. He 
was a young man when his state sent him to Wash-ing-ton 
where he held his place in Con-gress for ten years. In 1831 
he was sent to Rus-sia to look out for our rights there ; and 
in 1853 he held the same post in Eng-land. You see, he rose 
fast to the first place in the land, for in 1857 he was made 
pres-i-dent. While he was in the chair of state, the Prince 
of Wales came here for the first time, and this shows that 
Eng-land felt we were now one of the big coun-tries of the 
world, and that she must treat us as such. 

It was while Bu-chan-an was pres-i-dent that Cy-rus W. 
Field laid the first wire un-der the Ocean, by which words 
could be sent from this new land to those old lands on the 
oth-er side. The talk a-bout slav-er-y was so fierce at this 
time that a fight in which brave lives were lost took place, 
and the nam§ wbteh shines out bright is that of John 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 



59 



Brown of Kan-sas. He was a friend of the black men, and 
took their part. He struck the first blow in their cause at 
the fort at Har-per's Fer-ry, which he held for two days. 
He took all the guns that were there, as he wished to arm the 
black men and then lead them to the South to fight for their 
friends, held there as slaves. Of course this was a-gainst 
the law of the land, and troops were sent to seize this brave 
and good man. His two sons fought with him, and he saw 
them both shot down, but he did not give up till in the heat 
of the fight he fell with six wounds. He did not die at this 
time; af-ter this he was hung as one who had fought 
a-gainst the law of his land. His last act, as he was on his 
way to the place where he was to be hung, was to kiss a 
lit- tie ba-by which a poor slave held up to him as he passed. 

His death was not in vain, for from now on the ques- 
tion of sla-ver-y was the talk of the whole land, and in 1860 
South Car-o-li-na took the lead and said that she would not 
bear the laws of the Un-ion, but would rule her land in her 
own way. Soon, six more South-ern states said the same ; 
and these states which cut loose from the North were called 
the " Con-f ed-er-a-cy ; " at the head as pre? 5 -dent was Jef-fer- 
son Da-vis. 

This was the state of things when Bu-chan-an left the 
chair, and went to his home in Penn-syl*va-ni-a, at a place 
- called Wheat-land. 

In the last year of his life he wrote a book of his life, 
which is still in print. He died at his home on June 1st, 
1868. He was the last of the " Peace " pres-i-dents, for it 
was A-bra-ham Lin-coln who took his place, and in his term 
the strife as to the slave trade led to our " Civ-il War." 



60 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



A-BRAHAM LIN-COLN. 

Thom-as Lin-coln, who was the fa-ther of A-bra-ham 
Liti-coln, had seen a sad sight when he was but a boy of 
eight years ; while he and his brothers were hard at work 
with their fa-ther in the dense, wild woods which grew 
close to their small home in Ken-tuck-y, an In-di-an chief 
crept close to them ; he fired one shot, and the boys saw their 
big, strong fa-ther fall dead. They were brave boys, and 
while one ran for help, the oth-ers kept at bay the In-di-ans 
who came from the woods. A band of men soon came to 
their aid, and drove the fierce red men back to the woods. 
It was a rough, hard life in which Thom-as Lin-coln grew 

up ; and he could not read or 
write when, at twen-ty years, 
he took as his wife Miss Nan- 
cy Hanks ; she was a bright 
girl and soon taught him at 
least to write his name. 

It was a poor log-house in 
Har-din Coun-ty, Ken-tuck-y, 
to which he took his bride ; 
and yet in this home so mean 
and small, was born, on Feb- 
ru-a-ry 12th, 1809, the boy who 

LINCOLN'S EARLY HOME. / , 7 / , . * JT . 

was to be pres-i-dent of this 
great land. Few boys and girls know what it is to be 
as poor as this lit-tle boy was, or to lead as hard and 
sad a life. His clothes were thin and poor, his shoes, 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



01 



when he had an-y, were oft-en full of holes; he did 
not al-ways have as much as he would like to eat, and 
in the long, hard win-ters he was oft-en ver-y cold. It 
was not an eas-y life, and it was full of hard work, for 
peo-ple in this rough place could not read and there were no 
schools ; but when he was still a young boy his folks moved 
to Xn-di-an-a, and though there was more work to be done, 
life was not quite so sad, for he and his sis-ter Nan-cy now 
had a play-mate, their cous-in, Den-nis Hanks, who was full 
of life and fun. " Abe," as folks called him, was but eight 
years old when his par-ents went out into the "West to live, 
but he was so strong that he could help chop down the 
trees of which the new home vvas made ; then, too, he 
learned how to shoot the game and wild fowl in the big 
woods, and so could bring good things in-to the house to eat. 
But a dark time came in his life soon lor the kind, good 
moth-er took sick and died. Her death was a great loss to 
" Abe," and he felt much grief that there was no one to say 
a pray-er at her grave ; so he wrote to the min-is-ter in the 
old home in Ken-tuck-y, and asked him if he would not come 
there and bless his moth-er's grave. This good man came 
as soon as he could, but it was a long while af-ter her death 
be-fore " Abe " had his wish. That win-ter was long and 
hard for the poor lit-tle boy and girl with no moth-er to see 
that they were warm, or that they had good food to eat : 
but in the fall of 1819, the fa-ther brought home a new wife, 
Mrs. Sal-ly John-son and now at last a ray of bright light 
came to stay with " Abe " and Nan-cy. The new moth-er 
was a good, kind wo-man, and was quite rich for those days. 
She soon had the home bright and neat ; she put good warm 
clothes on " Abe " and Nan-cy ; saw that they had food to 
eat and at once sent them to school. 



LIVES OF THE PKESIDENTS. 



" Abe w was now e-lev-en years old, tall and big, and of 
more strength than most boys of his age. His f a-ther hired 
him out for all sorts of work ; to pitch hay, to chop wood, 
to help on the farm ; no work was too hard for this big, 
strong boy ; but, with all this work, he kept at his books 
too. Late at night, while all the rest slept, he would stud-y 
his books ; and as books were few he read them ma-ny 
times o-ver ; one of the books he loved the most was the 
"Life of Wash-ing-ton." 

He was a young man, for it was in March, 1828, that 
a chance came to him to see more of life ; he was hired to 
take a boat filled with skins down the Mis-sis-sip-pi Eiv-er 
to New Or-le-ans ; he did this work well, and when he came 
back was paid a good price for it. He was just of age when 
his folks went to Il-li-nois to live ; and now he helped build 
a home, cleared a big field in which it stood, split rails to 
fence it in, and then went off to make his own way in life 
The first thing he did was to help build a flat-boat and 
then take it down to New Or-le-ans ; when he came back 
the man who owned the boat gave him a place in his store 
at New Sa-lem ; and now he had a good chance to get books 
to read ; and you may be sure he was glad of this. He 
was soon known in the place as a bright young man, and 
one who would not lie, or steal, or do an-y mean thing ; he 
was full of fun and jokes, and the folks in the town were 
all fond of him ; he was called " Hon-est Abe." When the 
" Black Hawk War " broke out he went at the head of a 
small band of men to the seat of war; he was in no great 
fight, but learned much of war and how to rule the 
rough men who were in his care. 

When he came home he was felt to be one of the first 
men in the town, and in 1834 he took a high place in the 



Late at night, while all the rest slept, he would stud-y his books 
(Page 62) (Lives of the Presidents.) 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



08 



state. He now took up the stud-y of law, and was soon in 
ac-tive praotise ; he had a good, kind heart, and did much 
good to those who were too poor to pay him. In 1846 he 
was sent to Con-gress ; this time he was there but one year ; 
then came back to Spring-field, Il-li-nois, and built up a fine 
law prac-tise. His name was now known through all this 
great land ; and in the slave strife he Was al-ways on the 
side of the slaves. He spoke so of t-en for the slaves that in 
1860, the South said if he was put up for pres-i-dent, by the 
North and West, they would leave the Union. But he was 
just the man to fill this high office at this time ; and as he 
had the most votes he took the of-fice of Pres-i-dent in 1861. 
There is a sto-ry told of these days, which shows that Lin- 
coln, when a great man, had no shame for the days when 
he was poor. Old John Hanks, who had helped him build 
that rail fence so long a-go, came to Il-li-nois with two of 
those rails ; and on them was a big card which told where 
they came from, and who split them. Lin-coln was just 
a-bout to make a speech to a big crowd ; and when he saw 
these rails he said that he had split them when a boy, but 
thought he could do bet-ter now. Then shouts and cheers 
went up from the crowd, you may be sure ; and from that 
time Lin-coln was known in the race for pres-i-dent as " The 
Kail Splitter." 

When he left his home to go to Wash-ing-ton, a great 
crowd came to see him off, but he was so sad he could not 
say much to them. There were plots to kill him at this 
time, and he knew it ; but he gave no thought to his own 
life, and went straight to his post of du-ty as Pres-i-dent. 
It was with a sad heart that he saw this great land torn 
with war ; and he would have been glad to keep peace, but 
this he could not do. When the South fired at the flag 



«4 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS 



of the Un-ion at Fort Sum-ter, a cry went up through the 
whole land. The South fought for what it called " States 
Rights ; " the right of each state to rule in its own way ; 
but this Lin-coln would not have. He cared more for the 
Un-ion than he did for the slaves ; for, though he thought 
all men should be free, he said, if he could save the Un-ion, 
he did not care if not one slave was made free ; he had no 
wish to keep the South from its rights ; but, at last, he felt 
it wise to send out a bill, which said that all the slaves 
should be free, and have the same rights as white men. 
This land was in no state for war ; much had to be done ; 
clothes and food got for the troops ; and arms as well had 
to be made or bought at once. The first great fight was at 
Bull Run in Yir-gin-i-a ; and the loss of lif e on both sides 
was great ; the North lost from the first ; men who had 
nev-er been in a fight be-fore went mad with fear and ran 
for their lives. But at the fight at Get-tys-burg the men of 
the North were brave and fought with such skill that the 
great fight was won by the North. 

Grant was put at the head of the troops who went down 
to free Mis-sis-sip-pi ; and it was not long be-fore he placed 
the Stars and Stripes over this fair state. The South made 
a brave fight, for what it thought was right and just ; but 
as the war went on, the troops of the South were in a bad 
state; they could get no food, no clothes, and so ma-ny 
men had been shot that in the last years of the war young 
boys had to help fill up the ranks. Now came Sher-man's 
march to the sea, and he took Sa-van-nah and all its guns 
and stores. This was a great blow, and now one by one 
the sea-ports of the South fell in-to the hands of the North. 
At last Gen-er-al Lee, a great and good man of the South, 
sent word to Grant that he would come to terms and make 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



peace. Grant was kind at this hard time ; he let Lee keep 
his sword, and said that the men might keep all their 
hors-es. It was in A-pril, 1865, that peace came to our 
great land; and the North went mad with joys; bells 
pealed, and fires blazed in the streets; flags were raised 
and guns were fired ; but in the South there was no joy ; 
on-ly great grief. 

From the grief of the South a great crime sprang ; on 
the night of A-pril 14th, as Lin-coln sat in a box at the 
the-a-tre watch-ing a play he was shot by a man from the 
South named Wilkes Booth. When he had shot Lin-coln, 
this man sprang on the stage and tried to run from the 
place ; he fell and broke his leg ; but in this state he got 
to the door, where he jumped on his horse and fled for his 
life. He was found at last in a barn, and made such a 
brave fight for his life that the barn had to be set on fire 
be-fore he could be caught ; e-ven then he would not come 
out and give him-self up ; but fought till he was shot down 
where he stood. 

Lin-coln had been shot in the back of his head, and 
could not move or speak ; — men took him with care to a 
house near by, but there was no help for him ; and in the 
ear-ly morn of the next day a great life came to a sad end. 
The whole land, the South as well as the North, wept at his 
death ; for no sane man felt that Booth's deed was wise or 
just ; and to this day the name of A-bra-ham Lin-coln, the 
" Sav-iour of his Coun-try," is held dear by North and 
South. 
S 



LIVES OF THE PBESIDEXIS. 



AN-DREW JOHN-SON. 

An-drew John-son's life as a boy was quite as hard as 
that of lit-tle " Abe " Lin-coln. He was born in Ra-leigh, 
North Car-o-li-na, on De-cem-ber 29th, 1808, in a small log 
cab-in ; and near his home were the big farms of the rich 
men of the South, on which lived in more ease than he the 
slaves, who looked down on his fa-ther and mo-ther as 
" poor white trash." 

His fa-ther died when An-drew was but four years old ; 
he must have been a brave man, for he lost his life try-ing 
to save a man from drown-ing. Lit-tle An-drew was too 
poor to go to school ; he had to try and earn mon-ey, when 
he was but ten years old ; so he was sent to a tail-or to learn 
to make clothes ; here, for five years he worked hard ; and 
then he heard a man read ; and for the first time it came 
to his mind that he could learn to do this ; he got the men 
in the shop to teach him his " A, B, C ; and he was so quick 
to learn that soon he could read a lit-tle ; but it was not till 
he was wed to a bright yo' jag girl that he learned a great 
deal of books ; this was w Aen he was eight-een, and he had 
gone to G-reen-ville, Ten-nes-see, to set up in life for him- 
self. These young folks were both poor, but both bright ; 
and the wife was a great help to John-son all through his 
life. He rose fast in his new home ; we see him, from the 
first, take the part of the poor ; and he was soon put in high 
of-fice in the town ; it was not long ere he rose to a high 
place in the state, and, in 1843, we see the poor lit-tle tail-or 




ANDREW JOHNSON. 



i 



ATOEEW JOHNSON. 



6T 



boy of 1826 in the halls of Con-gress, standing up for the 
rights of the class in which he was born. In 1846 he took 
the seat of John Quin-cy Ad-ams, who was too sick to hold 
it ; does it not seem strange that two men who had lived as 
boys so un-like should rise to just the same place ? For ten 
years he was in Wash-ing-ton, where he helped make the 
laws of the land ; then in 1853, he was made gov-ern-or of 
Ten-nes-see. When the Civ-il War broke out, he took sides 
with the North, though he was born in the South and lived 
there ; and when Lin-coln was made pres-i-dent he took the 
next place as vice-pres-i-dent. 

On Lin-coln's death, he took the pres-i-dent's chair. The 
whole land was now up-set ; in the South the white men 
had no work ; and the slaves did not know how to care for 
them-selves. In the North there was strife as to the terms 
on which the South should come back in-totheUn-ion; and 
on ma-ny things John-son and his Con-gress did not think 
the same ; so there was strife be-tween them. It came to 
its height in 1868, when the Sen-ate tried John-son for 
" high crimes and mis-de-mean-ors ; " this means that Con- 
gress thought the pres-i-dent did not act for the good of the 
land, and should be put out of of-fice ; but the men who 
tried him did not all think the same ; and most of them 
said he should keep his place. 

So he was in the chair for four years, and then went 
home to E-liz-a-beth-town, Ten-nes-see, where he lived till 
his death on Ju-ly 29th, 1875. 



68 



LIVES OF THE PBESIDEffT& 



U-LYS-SES SIMPSON GRANT. 

The boy who was to be first a great gen-er-al in the 
ar-my, and then Pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States, was born 
at Point Pleas-ant, O-hi-o, A-pril 27th, 1822. As a boy he 
did not care for books, but was fond of sports and games, 
and had a great love for horses ; he was but eight years 
old when he put a young colt .to a sled, and hauled sticks 
and logs from the woods to his home; and he was but 
twelve when he made a trade of a horse he had for a young 
colt which had not been used much ; on his way home a 
dog sprang at the colt, which, at once, mad with fear, tried 
to run a-way ; the boy held fast to his reins, and stopped 
the colt just on the edge of a great cliff ; but it was in such 
fear that it would not move, and the boy for a time knew 
not what to do. At last he took his hand-ker-chief , tied it 
o-ver the colt's eyes, and so drove him home. Folks near 
the Grant home said there was no horse which young 
U-lys-ses could not ride ; he was a boy who had a firm will 
and strong nerves ; and was at the head in all sports or 
games ; for young boys soon learn which one of them must 
take the lead. 

He did not stand so high in school, but did his tasks well ; 
and in 1839 he went to "West Point, Here he soon had 
ma-ny friends ; and they gave him a name which clung to 
him for life ; he was called " Uncle Sam," from the IT. S. in 
his first two names. At West Point, he read a great deal 
of war, and the men who had done brave deeds for their 




•ULYSSES" S. GRANT. 



ULYSSES SIMPSOtf GRAOT, 



ooun-try ; and when he left there he was, at heart, as well 
as in name, a sol-dier of his coun-try. He at once took his 
place with the troops, who were at war with the In-di-ans 
in the West ; but his first big fight was at Pa-lo Al-to in 
1846. At the close of this war Grant, who had shown 
much skill, and knew no fear, was sent to the West once 
more to force the In-di-ans to keep peace. 

He was in Cal-i-f or-ni-a while the gold craze was at its 
height, to try and make the rough men who came in search 
of gold keep the laws of the land. Then, from 1854, he had 
a few years of peace, and start-ed to tan hides and skins, in 
Ga-le-na, H-li-nois ; but his life was ev-er at his coun-try's 
call ; and he was one of the first men to take up arms in 
the Civil War. He was made a gen-er-al soon af-ter the 
war broke out ; and one of his first acts was to block all 
the streams and roads near his post at Cai-ro, on the O-hi-o 
River, so that the South could get no food 07 arms. Grant 
was known as a brave fight-er, and oft-en was in the midst 
of the fight at the head of his men. At a great loss of life 
to his troops, he took two strong forts from the South, 
Forts Hen-ry and Don-el-son; and then came that great 
fight at Shi-loh ; where the troops of the South were cut 
down, and the North won the day ; Grant was now put 
next to the head of the whole ar-my ; and at once tried to 
take the cit-y of Vicks-burg. The siege of this cit-y was 
hard for those in its walls, and for the troops in front of it ; 
for Grant and his men could get no food from the North, 
and the cit-y was quite cut off from help. The cit-y made 
a brave stand for two long months; but had to give in 
at last, and at the end of that time Grant and his men 
marched in-to the cit-y ; now this great gen-er-al showed 
what a kind heart he bad, for he gave food and clothes to 



?0 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the poor men who had fought so long and so well, to save 
their town ; and he tried hard, at this time, to think of 
some way to bring the war to a close. Grant was not a 
hard man, but he was a just one ; and in his camps, the 
men must live the right sort of lives ; he would not let his 
men steal food from the farms a-bout them, or rob the poor 
folks in their homes. He was a plain man, and his dress 
showed his plain tastes; once, when he had his troops 
march past him, that he might see how they looked, he 
wore such a plain garb that his cap-tains were dressed 
bet-ter than he. He wore no sword, sash, nor belt ; just a 
plain, dark suit, with a soft felt hat on his head, and a pair 
of kid gloves on his hands ; he was a great smoker, and, it 
is said, his big plans were all made when his ci-gar was in 
his mouth. In 1863, Grant won a great fight at Chat-ta- 
noo-ga ; and in the fierce fight in the Wil-der-ness, he and 
Gen-er-al Lee met for the first time. 

Grant's next great work was to seize Pe-ters-burg ; and 
so he laid siege to the town ; he dug a huge mine in front 
of the doomed cit-y, and filled it full of pow-der that would 
go off when fired with a match ; when this great charge 
went off, the fort was blown to small bits, and heaps 
of dead and dy-ing men lay in the midst of the ru-in ; 
but the brave men of the South still held the fort, and 
drove back the troops from the North as they rushed 
up ; and so well did they fight that Grant and his men 
had to draw back, and leave Pe-ters-burg a-lone for some 
time. 

The next time he tried to take the town though, Gen- 
er-al Lee, who was in charge, was forced to yield ; and soon 
the red, white and blue waved o-ver the South-ern cit-y. 
Soon af-ter this, Grant took from Lee all the troops in his 



~ ULYSSES SIMPSOM GRANT. ft 

charge ; and it was now plain to see that the war must 
soon end. 

You read in the life of Lin-coln, of the terms of peace 
which Grant gave to the great chief of the South ; and it 
seems that these two men, Grant and Lee, had no hard 
thoughts for each other ; for when peace was made, they 
shook hands, and part-ed friends. Each had done his best 
in the cause he thought right. Grant's trip to the North 
when the war was at an end was a grand one ; crowds 
rushed to see the man who had saved the Union, and cheers 
and shouts rang to the skies. He was, of course, named for 
pres-i-dent and a great vote put him in of-fice. 

He was in the pres-ident's seat for two terms ; and was 
the on-ly man since Wash-ing-ton, who was thought of for 
a third term ; but this the whole land said no to ; as no man 
should be pres-i-dent longer than Wash-ing-ton had been. 
In Grant's last term, a big fair was held in Phil-a-del-phi-a, 
called the " Cen-ten-ni-al ; " to keep in mind this was the great 
day on which this land was made free. At the end of 
Grant's two terms, he took a tour of the world ; and all 
lands made much of the sol-dier pres-i-dent ; rich gifts were 
placed in his hands ; and at the courts of the old world, 
kings and queens were glad to have this plain qui-et man 
as a guest. 

His last home was in New York ; and here, in 1884, he 
fell sick ; he lost much mon-ey at this time, and was, in 
truth, a poor man. But he was, to the last, a brave man ; 
and in the midst of much pain, he wrote the book of his life, 
that when he was dead his wife should have mon-ey from 
its sale. 

He died after eight long months of great pain, at Mt. 
Mc-Greg-or, near Sar-a-to-ga ; on July 23d, 1885, his bod-y lay 



72 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



in state in New York for some days, and crowds from far 
and near came to view this great man for the last time. 

He was laid to rest Au-gust 8th, 1885, at Kiv-er-side Park, 
New York Cit-y ; and the white mar-ble tomb that marks 
this spot is a gift to the great dead, from the land he served 
so welL 



BUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



71 



BUTH-EBrFOBD B. HAYESL 

Buth-er-ford B. Hayes was born in Del-a-ware, O-hi-o, 
Oc-to-ber 4th, 1822 ; such a strong, rosy lit-tle boy was he, 
that he had the pet name of " Bud-dy ; " his f a-ther had a 
big farm and a store as well, so he was quite rich, and lit- 
tle Bud-dy grew up in a bright and hap-py home. He came 
of a race of brave men, who had fought and died for this 
fair land in the wars of the Bev-o-lu-tion and of 1812 ; and 
he grew up as brave as they. He and his lit-tle sis-ter Fan- 
ny went when young to a small school near their home ; and 
the good, wise moth-er helped them with their books at home ; 
Buth-er-ford worked hard at school, and went when quite 
young to the high school, where he soon stood at the head 
of his class. He was six-teen when he went to Ken-yon Col- 
lege, Ohio. Now, though he was so good at his books, he 
loved sport and fun as well ; and he was so strong, that he 
could walk miles on the cold-est of days, and yet get no hurt. 
Once he walked all the way from col-lege to his home and 
back, when the snow lay deep on the ground, and this was 
f or-ty miles ; he could swim and skate, and knew how to 
fish and hunt ; the boys at col-lege all liked him ; he had 
hosts of friends, and the strong, brave will that kept him at 
the head in games and sports put him first in his class too, 
He left col-lege in 1842, and took up the stud-y of law at 
Har-vard Col-lege ; in 1846, he was made one of the bar, and 
took up prac-tise of law in Cin-cin-nat-i. "When the Civ-il 
War broke out, he, as cap-tain of a band of men from his 
home, did brave, good work. Once be wa§ shot and fell to 



74 



LIVES OF THE PKESIDENT& 



the ground ; but he did not give up ; he told his men what 
to do as he lay there in great pain, and kept up till some one 
came to take his place as lead-er. At the end of the war, 
he was a gen-er-al ; and was much loved by his men. He 
was sent to Con-gress by his state ; and then made its gov- 
ernor for three terms. In 1876, he was made pres-i-dent ; 
though some thought by a fraud in the count ; and the 
Dem-o-crats said that their man, Sam-u-el J. Til-den, 
should have been pres-i-dent. "While Hayes was at the White 
House, there was a great la-bor strike, from the East to the 
West, on all the rail-roads. The heads of the roads said that 
they would not pay the men, in their hire, as much as they 
had done; and so, all the men left their work and no trains 
could run, for the men came in great mobs to stop them ; 
at last, they rose in arms, and then the troops were sent out 
to force them to keep the peace; nine men were killed, and 
some of the rest were bad-ly hurt. But the men did not 
give up for a long time ; they held Pitts-burg for two days, 
and burned cars and the grain kept in them. 

Of course, in the end, the law had to be o-beyed and the 
mobs were made to come to terms, and lay down their 
arms. 

There was a war with the In-di-ans while Hayes was 
in the chair ; but this was put down by Gen-er-al How-ard ; 
and after some fierce fights, the chiefs were caught and 
bound to keep the peace. There was a change made in the 
way of life at the White House while Hayes was there, for 
no wine was ever put on the ta-ble for guests or for the 
pres-i-dent and his wife ; this was the first time, and so far, 
the on-ly time, that wine has not had its place at least at the 
state meals at the White House. Hayes was in Washing- 
ton for one term and then went to his home in Mas-sil-lon, 
O-hi-o. He died on Jan-u-a-ry 17th, 1893. 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



j 



JAMES ABEAM GARFIELD. 



9* 



JAMES A-BRAM GAR-FIELD. 

In rough, log cab-ins, out in the midst of wild woods, 
we have read that six of our pres-i-dents were born; the 
sev-enth, James A-bram Gar-field, was born in Or-ange, 
O-hi-o, on No-vem-ber 19th, 1831. 

His fa-ther had built, with his own hands, their small, 
rude home ; and it stood deep in the wild wood, whose trees 
would, at times, catch fire from the sparks thrown from 
the steam en-gines some miles off. Near the Gar-field home 
was their field of grain ; one day this caught fire, and in 
trying to save his wheat, the fa-ther of lit-tle James lost his 
life. It was a hard life to which he left his young wife 
and the four lit-tle ones ; but she was a brave good wo-man ; 
she had to work hard of course, and so did the boys; 
but the moth-er taught them from books as well ; and lit-tle 
James was but four years old when he went to his first 
school. He was a tough, strong boy, and soon did a large 
part of the farm work ; in the long sum-mers he had the 
most work to do, and then in the win-ters he could go to 
school ; he was a brave boy, for the school was miles from 
home, and his road lay through the deep woods, in which 
wild beasts roamed at will. But he went his way, and if 
he felt fear, did not show it ; he had a great love for books, 
and late at night, with the big wood-fire for his light, he 
would read o-ver and o-ver his few books. His moth-er had 
taught him to love the Bi-ble, and this Good Book he knew 
well. But, at last, the time came when he was so old that 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



he could leave home, and so help the moth-er more than he 
had done. The first thing he did was to drive mules on the 
tow-path of the O-hi-o Ca-nal; here he earned $10.00 a 
month, but the men he met were coarse and rough, and 
the life rude and vile ; so, with a sad heart, the young boy, 
fresh from his good home in the qui-et woods, took what 
he had made here, and went back to the place he loved. He 
was sick for a long while now ; and as he lay on his bed, 
he made up his mind that he would go to col-lege, and lead 
a good, use-ful life out in the big world ; that he would use 
his brains more than his hands. With this hope in front 
of him, he made mon-ey in the sum-mer to pay his way at 
school in win-ter ; and soon knew all that they could teach 
and went to Hi-ram Col-lege ; here at first he did all sorts of 
work to pay his way ; rang the bells, swept the floors, and 
built the fires ; but he was soon paid to teach in the col- 
lege, for he was too bright and quick to do such hard work 
long. In 1854, he went to Wil-liams Col-lege, and left at 
the head of his class in 1856. 

From now on he rose fast ; he taught school when he 
left col-lege ; his boys loved the big strong man and said 
so much in his praise, that men learned to love him too ; 
and in 1859 he was made one of the O-hi-o Sen-ate, and soon 
af-ter sent to Con-gress. Then came the Civ-il War, in 
which he fought brave-ly ; he won much fame in some of 
the great bat-ties, and was made a gen-er-al. He was a warm, 
close friend of Lin-coln ; and on the day of Lin-coln's death, 
it was Gar-field who spoke such calm, good words to a mob 
of men on Wall Street, New York, that he kept them from 
rash acts at this sad time. At the close of the war, Gar- 
field was in Eu-rope for a short time ; and when he came 
home, he was sent to Con-gress, where he kept his seat for 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 



rr 



a long time. In 1880 he was named for pres-i-dent, and took 
his seat in 1881. But there was a great grief in store for 
this land, once more. On July 2d, 1881, just four months 
from the time he took his seat, Gar-field was shot by Charles 
Gui-teau, as he, with James G. Blaine, was on his way to 
take a train north from Wash-ing-ton. They bore him back 
to the White House, and the man who had done this foul 
act was seized. The whole land prayed for Gar-field's life, 
but he grew worse fast ; and it was thought best at last to 
take him to Long Branch, where it was cool-er than in 
Wash-ing-ton. But the long, hot months dragged on ; and 
the sick man did not grow well in the cool salt air, as it had 
been hoped ; in spite of all care, the pres-i-dent failed day 
by day ; and on Sep-tem-ber 19th, 1881, the whole world 
heard with sorrow of this good man's deatk The great 
men of the day wept side by side, as Gar-field lay in state 
in Wash-ing-ton ; and men of note, in all walks of life, felt 
his death as a great grief. He now lies at rest in Cleve- 
land, O-hi-o. Gui-teau was hanged for the crime he had 
done ; and it is but just to say, that some thought he was 
not in his right mind when he shot Gar-field. 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS* 



CHES-TER ALAN AR-THUR 

Ches-ter Al-an Ar-thur was bom in Fair-field, Ver- 
mont, on Oc-to-ber 5th, 1830, and his fath-er had charge of 
the church in that place and was one of the first men to 
speak for the poor slaves. Now, in those days, those good 
men did not live as well as they do now ; for folks were poor 
in the small towns ; so this small boy was al-so born in a 
log cab-in ; but he was sent to good schools, and was quite 
young when he knew so much that he could go to Un-ion 
Col-lege. All the time he was here he paid his own way, 
and when he left Col-lege he taught school, so that he could 
lay by means to go to New York and stud-y law. He was 
soon in law prac-tise, and he and an old school-mate made 
the name of their firm well known. Ar-thur took the part 
of the black race, just as his fa-ther had done, and in 1856, 
he won a suit which let the ne-groes ride in horse-cars with the 
whites. A slave-girl had been put off a car and Ar-thur took 
up her case and won it. For some years he held high of-fice 
in the state of New York and was a gen-er-al in the Civ-il 
War ; he was not in the fights, but saw that the troops had 
clothes and food ; he did this hard task so well that, when 
the war was at an end, the pres-i-dent gave him the best place 
in New York State ; he was made chief of the great port of 
New York and held this post for two terms. 

In 1880 he was made vice-pres-i-dent with Gar-field as 
pres-i-dent ; and, of course, took the chair when Gar-field 
died. He held this place for one term and then went back 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHTTB. 



to his home In New York Cit-y, and took up his law work. 
There was a split in his par-ty at the end of his term ; some 
men wished Ar-thur to run once more for pres-i-dent, but 
more wished James G-. Blaine of Maine; so, of course, 
Blaine was named. The Dem-o-crats named Gro-ver Cleve- 
land ; and as all the men on that side wished this one man 
to win, he had the most votes ; and for the first time in a 
long while, the Dem-o-crats won in the race for pres-i-dent. 

Two years from the time that Ar-thur came home, and 
right in the midst of his law work, he died in New York 
Cit-y ; this was on No-vem-ber 18th, 1886 ; and he was laid 
to rest in ALba-ny. 



80 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

i 



STE-PHEN GKO-VER CLEYE-LAKD. 

The race of brave, strong men from whom Ste-phen 
Gro-ver Cleve-land sprang made their first homes here, in 
Mas-sa-chu-setts, as far back as 1635. His fa-ther had 
charge of a small church in Cald-well, New Jer-sey, and 
here, in a neat white frame house, which you may see for 
your-selves to-day, was born, on March 18th, 1837, the boy 
who was to rise, step by step, to the pres-i-dent's seat. 

He was three years old when they moved to Fay-ette- 
ville, New York, and here he first went to school and lived 
till he was twelve years old. He showed a strong will, and 
a great love for books, as a small boy ; he would have his 
own way, if he could get it ; and this was why he was sent 
to a high school, when he was not so old by some years, as 
the rest of the boys there ; he gave his fa-ther no rest till 
he sent him ; and once there he made up his mind to lead his 
class. 

He was just twelve when his strong will sent him to 
work in a store near his home, so that he could help care 
for the big f am-i-ly in the small home. The man who hired 
him, soon saw that, if he was young, he knew how to work 
well, and that he could trust him ; for two years he worked 
in the store and then went back to his books. 

But, just at this time, his fa-ther died ; and he then had 
to find a way to care for those in great need at homa With 
the same pluck that he had shown in the past, he now went 
to work in a " Home for the Blind, 15 in New York. In this 
big cit-y, the bright boy saw and heard much which gave 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



81 



him new thoughts, and put in his heart the wish to make 
his life a great one. At the end of two years in the " Home," 
he made up his mind to learn law ; and he asked a man 
whom he knew to lend him twen-ty-five dol-lars to start him. 
The fact that this man did so shows that he had trust in 
young Gro-ver Cleve-land ; he could now start his work, and 
went to Buf-f a lo to do so. Here he lived for eight years ; at 
first he helped his un-cle, in the care of a big farm, and the 
mon-ey he so made was sent to his moth-er. Soon he had 
the chance to stud-y law ; the place where he went was two 
miles from his un-cle's home, but back and forth, rain or 
shine, he walked each day. There is told a tale that shows 
how he loved the books of law ; for, the first day he went to 
this place, a book was put in his hands to read ; he kept at 
it for hours, till dark came ; then he found the rest of the 
men had gone home ; all the doors were locked ; and he 
must stay there all night. 

Such hard work soon made him a man who well knew 
the law ; and folks gave him big cases that brought him 
much fame. He did not go to the war, when it broke out, 
for he felt that he could not leave his folks at home with no 
one to care for them. 

He rose fast in his law work; and more than one great 
case did he win ; he cared far more to take the part of the 
poor than of the rich ; and at no time in his life did he look 
for high place or fame ; it came to him though, for he was 
just the man to fill a high post well. His name was soon 
known in his state and at Wash-ing-ton ; for three years he 
was Sher-iff of E-rie Coun-ty and then he took up his law 
prac-tise once more ; but soon he was put at the head of his 
cit-y as its May-or ; and then was made the Gov-ern-or of the 
great state of New York. Here he did good work ; he put 



83 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



down those who had tak-en bribes, and had not been good, 
true men, and he tried to see that the laws were well kept ; 
men saw that he was the right man to fill this high place, 
for he had no fear of what might be thought of him ; he 
just did as he felt right ; and so, while he was still govern- 
or, he was named for pres-i-dent by a great vote, and was 
e-lect-ed. When he took the oath of of-fice in Wash-ing-ton, 
he did not kiss the big Bi-ble which oth-er pres-i-dents had 
kissed, but a lit-tle old book, much worn with use, which 
his moth-er had giv-en to him when he first left home. He 
was in the chair four years and while here, he took for his 
wife Miss Fran-ces Fol-som ; he was the first pres-i-dent to 
wed in the White House. Cleve-land was pres-i-dent for 
four years ; at the end of that time, the Re-pub-li-cans placed 
Ben-ja-min Har-ri-son in the pres-i-dent's chair. 

But, at the end of one term, once more the Dem-o-crats 
won the day ; and a-gain, in 1893, we see Gro-ver Cleve-land 
pres-i-dent. 

In May of 1894, the World's Fair was o-pened ; and few 
boys and girls are too young to know some-thing of the 
beau-ty of the Great White Cit-y built on the shores of Lake 
Mich-i-gan in Chi-ca-go. In the last years of Cleve-land's 
term, there was much talk of the state of things in Cu-ba. 
The men there wished to be free from Spain, who had ruled 
them, with a hard hand, for hun-dreds of years. 

Spain sent down troops of sol-diers ; and harsh laws 
were made to force the Cu-bans to keep the peace. But 
Cu-ba would not give up ; and the U-ni-ted States be-gan to 
feel pit-y for this brave lit-tle is-land, try-ing to get free. 

In the midst of the strife, Cleve-land's term of of-fice 
came to an end, and he went to New York to live and take 
up law again. In 1897, when he was six-ty years old, he 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 



•BENJAMIN HARRISON. 



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 



83 



irioved to Prince-ton, New Jer-sey, and lived there the rest 
of his life. 

As a boy, we have seen that he had not much time to 
go to school ; but he loved books all his life, and now, in his 
old age, he could live a life of stud-y, as well as find time to' 
hunt and fish, both sports he liked ve-ry much. 

Prince-ton Col-lege paid him the hon-or of mak-ing him 
a Doc-tor of Laws ; and he gave lec-tures (talks) on law at 
that Col-lege. 

The great men of the day were proud to be known as 
his friends ; and he was known to the whole world as one 
of the first men in our land. 

He spent his sum-mers at his home at Buz-zards Bay, 
Mass.; and his win-ters in Prince-ton, All through his long 
life he had been known as a man who could say " No" and 
mean it, when he thought a thing was wrong ; and this 
was so well known, that his ve-ry name, now in his old age, 
stood for strength to do the right thing. He had fought a 
fight for the good side of life and won ; and so when the 
E-qui-ta-ble Life In-sur-ance Com-pan-y, felt the need of a 
good man to help them, they ask-ed him for his help, for 
they knew the trust men had in him ; this work took him 
to New York two days in each week. 

So this great, good man passed his life, much loved and 
looked up to, for e-lev-en years ; and there, on June 24, 1908, 
he died, as he wished to die, in the home he loved, at 
Prince-ton. 

His fu-ner-al was as free from show as his life had 
been ; no speech was made, no hymn was sung ; he did not 
lay in state ; he had no cost-ly tomb ; but his bod-y in a 
plain oak cof-fin was borne by men who stood high in the 
world, and were true friends of the dead man; flags flew 



84 



LIVES OE THE PRESIDENTS. 



at half-mast, and the whole world knew that a brave, strong 
man had died. 

The-o-dore Roos-e-velt, then pres-i-dent, and ma-ny 
oth-er great men, stood by the grave in the lit-tle Prince- ton 
grave-yard, in which, on Sat-ur-day, June 27th, Gro-ver 
Cleve-land was laid to rest. 



BENJAMIN HARRXSOff. 



85 



BEN-JA-MIN HAK-RI-SOH. 

In the first part of this book, you heard of a hmte In- 
di-aii fight-er, whose name was Wil-liam Hen-ry Har-ri-soii ; 
and you saw this brave man mount step by step to the 
pres-i-dent's chair. It is his grand-son, Ben-ja-min Har-ri- 
son, whom we now see pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States. 
He was born in his grand-fa-ther's home at North-Bend, 
In-di-an-a, on Au-gust 20th, 1833. There were no good schools 
near his home; so in a small log house, in his grand- 
fa-ther's grounds, he first went to school ; he and a few 
oth-er boys and girls were taught here by those whom the 
Har-ri-sons hired. In this school the seats were of planks, 
laid on sticks that were stuck in holes in the floor ; they 
had no backs ; and were so high that the small boys and 
girls could not touch their feet to the floor. On-ly in the 
win-ter did this small boy go to school ; in the sum-mer he 
had work to do on the big farm ; he did his work well ; but 
he also learned to shoot, to fish, to swim, and to ride. 

He was much liked by all the boys, for he was full of 
sports and jokes. In 1820 he went to Mi-a-mi Col-lege, and 
left in 1822, to stud-y law. In one of his first cases, the 
light was so dim, that he could not see the notes he had 
made with such care. What should he do ? There was but 
one thing he could do: fling to one side the notes and 
plead his case without an-y. This was a hard thing to do ; 
but he did it so well, that he won his case; and the great 
men of the day gave him much praise for his speech. 



86 



LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 



When the Civ-il War broke out he raised a troop of men, 
from his own state, and was made the colonel of this band, 
which was called the " 70th In-di-an-a." 

He served for two years, and won fame in some of the 
great bat-ties of the war ; so brave was he at Re-sa-ca, that 
he was made a Brig-a-dier Gen-er-al. Through the long 
years of war, he was kind and good to the men in his care ; 
they loved him well, and gave him the name of " Little 
Ben." 

Not till the war was at an end, did he leave the field ; 
then with much fame, he went back home, and took up his 
work at law. He took a high place in his own state and 
made some great speech-es. 

It was now the year 1889 ; just one hun-dred years had 
passed since Wash-ing-ton, our first pres-i-dent, took his 
place as Pres-i-dent of the IT-nit-ed States ; and the whole 
land thought it right to cel-e-brate the date. So in New 
York Cit-y, on A-pril 29th and 30th, was held the " Wash- 
ing-ton Cen-ten-ni-al." The cit-y was hung from end to end, 
with red, white and blue ; the grand, good face of Wash- 
ing-ton, framed in the flag of the land, or wreathed in green, 
looked down on the gay scene. Rank by rank, the troops 
filed by a-midst the shouts and cheers of the dense crowds 
that filled the streets, and looked from the win-dows of 
stores and hous-es. Rich and poor, great and small, kept 
this great day; the pres-i-dent and oth-er great men from 
Wash-ing-ton were brought to the foot of Wall Street, on a 
barge hung with flags ; here all the ships of war were drawn 
up on each side ; and as the par-ty went to the spot where 
Wash-ing-ton took his oath of of -flee, young girls, clad in 
white, cast flow-ers be-fore them. As the troops filed past 
the pres-i-dent, one saw, not just those from the North; but 



WILLIAM McKINLEY. 



BENJAMIN HAKRISON. 



8? 



up from the South came hosts of men, bearing the flags of 
their states ; all glad to share in this great day of the na-tion ; 
and there were men from a-cross the seas too ; the Ger-mans 
and the French marched side by side with the A-mer-i-cans 
By night, fire- works and bon-fires filled the streets with 
light, and blazed in beau-ty ; no such great time had ever 
been known in this land ; and this was as it should be ; for 
it was all done for the great, good man, who had led our 
troops so well in our first war, that he had made us free; 
and had then, by a wise and just rule, helped us to be the 
great, strong land that we are to-day. 

"While Har-ri-son was in of-fice, work was be-gun for the 
" World's Fair," which was held in Chi-ca-go, in 1892, just 
four hun-dred years since Co-lum-bus first saw A-mer-i-ca. 
Har-ri-son went to Chi-ca-go and o-pened the fair with a 
speech on Oc-to-ber 14th, 1892 ; but folks could not go there 
till the next year. In 1893, Harrison went home to In-di- 
a-na, and took up his law work once more ; he served his 
coun-try still in ma-ny ways, and won fame as a writ-er. 
He died on March 13, 1901. 

We have seen that Gro-ver Cleve-land now be-came 
pre^-i-dent ; at the end of his four years, the Re-pub-li-cans 
put Wil-liam Mc-Kin-ley in of-fiqe. 



88 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



WIL-LIAM MC-KIN-LEY. 

The man who, in the year 1900, stood at the head 
of our great land, was born at Niles, O-hi-o, on Jan-u-a-ry 
29th, 1843. In the schools near his home he was taught 
his let-ters and, as a child, was fond of books, and quick to 
learn. He was a mere boy, when he taught school to earn 
the means to go to Col-lege. The school-house in which he 
taught still stands ; it is a plain, square, white house, with 
two win-dows in front and three on each side. His moth- 
er was a good wo-man, with a clear, strong brain ; she 
taught him, as well as his eight broth-ers and sis-ters, to 
love truth, and to live brave and strong lives. 

Young Wil-liam was not long to lead a life of peace ; 
for in 1861 he, then but a boy of eight-een, left his books 
and his home, and went to the war. Man-y sto-ries prove 
how brave he was while there ; but two will show you why 
he rose so fast from the ranks. At one time the guns had 
been left on the road, af-ter a great fight ; and it would be a 
hard task to go back near the foe to get them. But, young 
Mc-Kin-ley said, " The boys will haul them ; " and he and a 
few oth-ers went back for them and brought them into our 
lines. Then he was at one time two miles from the fight, 
in charge of the food ; he was quite safe ; but he thought 
our men would fight bet-ter, if they had some cof-fee and 
food. So he filled a cart and drove straight to the lines, 
where our brave men were hard at work. Was this not a 
brave act ? To risk his life for the sake of tak-ing food and 



WILLIAM McKINLEY. 



89 



drink to the worn men. He worked his way straight to 
the front and came out of the war a cap-tain. He went 
home at once and took up the stud-y of law in Can-ton; 
one of his first speech-es was for the rights of the black 
men ; he said that they should have the same right to vote 
that white men had ; and he was ev-er on the side of the 
black man. In 1869 Mc-Kin-ley was mar-ried to Miss I-da 
Sax-ton. They were both very young when their two lit- 
tle chil-dren died. The young law-yer did all he could to 
cheer his wife ; and she was as brave as he, and did not let 
her grief keep him from his work. He rose fast in his 
state, and held high place more than once ; then, in 1877, 
he was sent to Congress. In 1891 he was made gov-ern-or 
of O-hi-o ; and in 1897, he had made such a great name for 
him-self that he was put up for pres i dent by the Ke-pub-li- 
cans, and e-lect-ed. Just as he came in-to of-fice, the strife 
in Cu-ba was at its height ; and men here in our great, free 
land had much pit-y for the Cu-bans, who were try-ing to 
get free from Spain, just as we had tried to shake off the 
hand of Eng-land long years a-go. The Span-ish rule grew 
worse and worse, as Spain found that Cu-ba would not giva 
in. At last Gen-er-al Wey-ler, a harsh and cru-el man, was 
sent there to force peace on an-y terms ; but Gen-er-al Go- 
mez knew his foes well, and his brave men fought with a 
strength born of a great hate for Spain. By and by, when 
Spain saw she could not win the day, she sent word that if 
Cu-ba would lay do wn her arms, she could have the rights 
for which she had asked in vain in the past. 

But it was too late ; Cu-ba had no faith in Spain, and 
would now be free from her hard yoke. There was much 
want in the big towns of Cu-ba at this time, for Wey-ler 
had made all the poor folks, who had lived in peace on their 



90 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENT*. 



small farms, come in-to the towns. Hesaid they gare help to 
the Cu-ban troops, and so he forced them to leave their homes 
and would on-ly let them bring with them just the few 
things that they could put on their backs. Then he had 
their lit-tle homes, and their crops which they had raised 
with care, all burned to the ground. He had lit-tle food to 
give this great host of poor peo-ple, and ma-ny died in the 
streets for the want of bread. You may be sure that our 
great land saw the pain and want down in Cu-ba, and 
longed to give aid ; but an act of help on our part would 
mean war with Spain, and this MoKin-ley did not wish. 
But there came a day when a great cry went up through 
the U-nit-ed States at a foul deed done in the bay of Ha- 
va-na. Our great war ship, the " Maine, 1 ' was blown up by 
a bomb, as she lay at an-chor in the har-bor. The thought 
of our poor men sent to such a death raised the cry of war 
in all hearts. " Ee-mem-ber the Maine," was the war-cry ; 
and men cried for war at once with Spain. But Mc-Kin-ley 
gave Spain one more chance to stop the fight and free Cu- 
ba ; this she would not do. So on A-pril 21st, 1898, once 
more the U-nit-ed States had to make read-y for war. 
Prom all the states men poured in and camps sprang up 
here and there, where the men were taught to load and fire 
their guns. Off at Hong-Kong, in charge of our war-ships, 
was brave Ad-mi-ral Dew-ey. He knew that the Span-ish 
fleet was in Ma-ni-la Bay, near the Phil-ip-pine Is-lands. 
which were ruled by Spain ; the loss of these ships would 
be a great blow to Spain just at this time ; so Dew-ey 
steered his ships there to strike a blow for his coun-try. 

It was night when he reached the spot, and before the 
Span-iards knew he was near, six of his great ships had 
slipped past their forts. Then a fierce fire poured on him 



WILLIAM McKENXEY. 



91 



from the forts ; but it did not do much. harm. At last the 
Span-ish fleet saw him, and at once the ships o-pened fire ; 
but Dew-ey's flag-ship, the " O-lym-pi-a," sent out such a 
storm of shot and shell, that the first of the Span-ish ships 
was sunk, and all on board killed. 

The fight last-ed two hours ; and at the end of that 
time the Span-ish fleet had all been sunk. Great joy was 
felt in the U-nit-ed States when this glad news was heard, 
and Dew-ey was the he-ro of the whole land. 

Our men down in Cu-ba fought well, and ma-ny brave 
deeds were done. On June 6th Ad-mi-ral Samp-son fired 
on the forts at San-ti-a-go ; our men put their hearts in 
their work and their aim with the great guns was true and 
straight. The Spaniards did not aim so well, and their 
shots did not go so far, and so the shot and shell from 
their forts did not do us much harm. 

Soon our men had stopped the fire from all the forts 
save Cas-tle Mor-ro, and this fort was rent and torn in great 
holes. 

On June 24th our " Eough Ei-ders," with The-o-dore Eoose- 
velt at their head, were sent out to clear the way to San-ti-a- 
go. The foe poured a hot fire on our men from the tall grass 
and weeds in which they lay hid-den ; and there was great 
loss of life. Pull of fire and pluck were these " Eough Ei- 
ders," and led by their brave colo-nels, Eoose-velt and Wood, 
they forced the Span-ish troops back, foot by foot. The line 
of fight was five miles long ; the heat was fierce ; and food 
and wa-ter scarce. But at last the troops came to the fort 
of San Juan Hill ; then, with a mad rush, up, up went 
our men to the Span-ish fort at the head I Cheers and 
shouts rose to the skies as the red, white and blue 
waved from the old Span-ish fort ; but the cost of this fort 



92 



LIVES OF TEE PKESIDENTS. 



had been great, for there was much loss of life on both 
sides. On Ju-ly 3d Cer-ve-ra, the Span-ish Ad-mi-ral, tried to 
sail his fleet out of the bay of San-ti-a-go ; he was seen, 
though, by our men, and af-ter a hot chase and fierce fight- 
ing the whole Span-ish fleet was burned or sunk. 

Spain lost scores of brave men ; but on our side not one 
man was killed, nor did we lose a ship. 

The end of the war was near ; on Ju-ly 10th we laid 
siege to San-ti-a-go, and on Ju-ly 17th we went in-to the cit-y 
and raised over it the Stars and Stripes. 

In this part of the world the last shot had been fired ; 
but Dew-ey in the far east did not know this, and so he 
struck one more blow for his coun-try. 

He took the cit-y of Ma-ni-la with the loss of but 
twelve men, and when our flag waved o-ver this cit-y, the 
end of the Span-ish war had come. On Jan-u-a-ry 1st, 1899, 
the Span-ish flag, which for four hun-dred years had waved 
o-ver Cu-ba, was hauled down ; the red, white and blue of 
our own land took its place ; and Cu-ba, free from the hard 
rule of Spain, blessed the great na-tion that had come to 
her aid. 

In Sep-tem-ber of 1899 Ad-mi-ral Dew-ey came home ; 
and from end to end of this land his name was cheered. 

He was the guest of the cit-y of New York for three 
days ; and well did the cit-y hon-or the Hero of Ma-ni-la. 

"When we took Ma-ni-la from Spain, and so closed the 
Span-ish war, it did not give us the Phil-ip-pines. The men 
there were glad to have us drive out the Span-iards, but did 
not wish us to take their place. Long months of war fol- 
lowed, and then, A-gui-nal-do, their chief, yield-ed and peace 
seemed to be at hand. 

But the peace for which we hoped did not come at once ; 



WILLIAM McTOTLEY. 



93 



these strange peo-ple o-ver whom our flag now waved did 
not trust us, they still feared it would be as hard to bear oui 
rule as that of Spain ; but we kept our sol-diers there to help 
keep the peace, and we sent down men and wo-men to start 
schools, to teach the people how to live in peace with each 
oth-er, as well as with us, to show them how to make the 
most of their own love-ly land, and to learn to love the God 
who rules this whole world. 

In 1900 Mc-Kin-ley ran a-gain for pres-i-dent ; this time 
with The-o-dore Roos-e-velt as vice-pres-i-dent ; and these two 
good men won the day. 

Just at this time a class of men ov-er in Chi-na, called 
Box-ers, rose up and said they would kill or drive out of 
Chi-na, all who were not Chi-nese. 

Of course we and the oth-er lands at once sent sol-diers 
to Chi-na to save the peo-ple, and the Box-ers were soon made 
to keep peace. 

Some of the lands wished to make Chi-na give up a great 
deal of land and pay much mon-ey be-cause of this trou-ble ; 
but our own land, with Mc-Kin-ley at the head, said that we 
would not act in this way ; and his wise, good words helped 
Chi-; ia ver-y much when she made peace. 

In Sep-tem-ber 1901, a great world fair was held in 
Buf-fa-lo, New York, aud as the U-ni-ted States took a great 
part in it, and showed ma-ny things from all parts of the 
land, Pres-i-dent Mc-Kin-ley went there to make a speech. 
On Sep-tem-ber 5th, he made a great speech, be-fore crowds 
of peo-ple who cheer-ed him and pressed close to him to hear 
each word he said; at the close, he said he hoped God would 
give peace to our own land as well as to all the rest of the- 
world. 

The next day, Sep-tem-ber 6th, the pres-i-dent stood for 



94 



LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 



long hours in the Tem-ple of Mu-sic, to shake hands with 
all who wished to meet him, and a great crowd of peo-ple 
filed past him, glad to touch his hand and hear his voice, for 
he was a good as well as a great and wise man, and was 
much loved. 

As the long line passed by him the pres-i-dent leaned 
down to pat a child, led to him by his moth-er, then rose to 
greet the next one, in turn. 

This was a young man whose right hand was hid by his 
hand-ker-chief. As the pres-i-dent, with a smile, held out 
his hand, two shots rang out, and he fell back in the arms 
of those who stood near him. 

The hand ker chief had hid a pis-tol with which this bad 
man had shot our good and kind pres-ident. 

As soon as the shots were fired, and the pres-i-dent fell, 
the man who had shot him was caught and held by those 
who stood near ; in such a rage was the crowd, at this cruel 
act, that the man would have been killed at once, had not 
Pres-i-dent Mc-Kin-ley said : 

" Let no one hurt him." 

For eight days, Mc-Kin-ley made a brave fight for his 
life ; but both shots had struck him, and though at first, 
there was some hope that he might live, it soon proved that 
he could not. In church-es, pray-ers were said for his life ; 
and not in our land a lone, but in those far off, all peo-ple 
hoped for the life of this brave, good man. 

His wife, who for years had been sick and so stood in 
great need of the love and care he had shown her all their 
lives, came to be with him, and his first thought in all his 
own pain was for her. 

When the end was near, on Sep-tem-ber 14th, Pres-i-dent 
Mc-Kin-ley said to his wife ; " It is God's way, His will, not 



WILLIAM McKINLEY. 



95 



ours, he done and then sank in-to a deep sleep and woke 
no more in this world. 

He was laid to rest with great hon-or ; at first he lay in 
state in the Cit-y Hall at Buf-fa-lo where crowds came for 
days, to look at his dead face. Then his bod-y was borne 
to Wash-ing-ton, and more people came to once more see 
him, whom they loved, as he lay in the Cap-i-tol of our 
land. 

The band on the grounds in front of the Cap-i-tol played 
the hymns the dead pres-i-dent had loved best : " Lead, 
Kindly Light, " and " Nearer my God to Thee ; " and at times 
peo-ple would join in with the band and sing the words to 
the hymns. 

At last, the dead pres-i-dent was borne to his own home 
in Can-ton, Ohio, and laid to rest there. 

As the bod-y was placed in the vault, all work in the 
United States stopped ; and the whole great land was hushed 
and still. 

No king in all the world was ev er laid to rest with 
more hon-or than Wil-liam Mc-Kin-ley. 



96 



LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 



THE-O-DORE ROOSE-VELT 

The-o-dore Roose-velt was born in New York Ci-ty 
Oc-to-ber 26, 1858, in a big bouse of brick and stone, which 
stood in a row with oth-ers just like it. 

The boy who was to be our twen-ty-sixth pres-i-dent came 
of a race of brave, wise men, and can trace back his name a 
long way, and ov-er the sea, to the coun-try of Hol-land. 

As far back as 1649, the first man of this race came to 
A-mer-i-ca ; the name then was Von Ros-en-velt, but soon lost 
the "von" (which word in Hol-land shows that a man who 
bears it is of good birth) , and be-came Roose-velt. 

Most of the Roose-velt men who lived be-fore this lit-tle 
boy, Theodore, was born, had lived in or near New York Ci-ty, 
and borne a good part in the life of that place, were well 
known and stood for truth and hon-or. 

The f ath-er of The-o-dore was a ver-y good man, kind to 
the poor, for whose help he gave a good deal of mon-ey, as well 
as time and thought; and to the men who came out of jail, 
of t-en with no friends or mon-ey, he was a good, wise friend, 
and gave much help. 

The news-boys of New York now owe to this good man's 
help the News-boys' Lodg-ing House. In 1853, he mar-ried 
Miss Mar-tha Bul-lock of Georg-ia; so you see The-o-dore 
Roose-velt had the blood of the South as well as the North in 
his veins. 



THEODOKE ROOSEVELT. 



07 



In the days when The-o-dore Roose-velt played in the 
streets of New York, the cit-y was not what it is to-day : his 
house, at 28 East 20th Street, was then in a ver-y fine part of 
the eit-y ; the little ones there used to play and romp in Un-ion 
Square, and walk to the big pub-lic school a few blocks off, 
just as boys and girls do to-day. 

It seems strange that a man as strong and well as Roose- 
velt should have been a weak and thin lit-tle boy, whose eyes 
w r ere so poor, and who was so oft-en sick, that he lost much 
time at school, and fell so far back in his les-sons that it was 
hard work to make up; but he airways did 6 6 catch up"; in his 
frail bod-y was a great, strong will; and he soon made up his 
mind he would be strong and well ; and a-ble to do the things 
in life which take health and strength to do. 

He loved books so well that it was hard to have to give 
them up, and do things to build up his strength ; but he did. 

In the sum-mers when they all went to Oys-ter Bay, on 
Long Isl-and, just where the Pres-i-dent went with his lit-tle 
ones lat-er on, he ran, he rode, he swam, he roamed over the 
Long Isl-and hills, and so gained health and strength each day. 

The weak boy soon grew so strong that he could hold his 
own with all the boys, not on-ly in books, but in games, too, 
that took strength to win in; he was much liked, and was 
called "Ted-dy" by his boy friends, and this name clung to 
him, ev-en while he was a man and sat in the Pres-i-dent 's 
chair. 

He had read so much of the West and life on the plains 
that as a boy, it is said, he thought he would like to hunt and 
live in the West part of the time, and teach in a school the 
rest of the time. 

With this thought in his mind, he knew he must keep well 
and strong and learn to shoot, and to ride, and do all the sports 



98 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



of out-door life well ; so, when, in 1876, lie went to Har-vard 
Col-lege, he still kept his health in his thoughts ; and did a 
good many things which were new to the others. 

It is said that he taught the oth-er young men to skip 
rope ; — he did it, and though he was laughed at when he first 
did it, he was so well liked that the rest soon joined in, and 
rope-skip-ping was one of the sports of the class of 1880. 

Play was a big part of Roose-velt's col-lege life ; but work 
was too ; and he worked quite as hard at his books as he did 
in the sports. 

He had two rooms in a house near the Col-lege, and on the 
walls hung his gun, his rod to fish with, and pic-tures of birds 
and an-i-mals, while stuffed birds and horns of wild an-i-mals 
stood on shelves, and books were all ov-er. 

When he left Col-lege in 1880, he took hon-ors for an 
es-say which he wrote a-bout birds and an-i-mals; the way 
they live, and all the things that they do. 

It was while Roose-velt was at Har-vard that he met Miss 
Al-ice Lee of Bos-ton, who on Sep-tem-ber 23, 1880, be-came 
his wife. 

They went, at once, to Eu-rope, and spent some hap-py 
months there ; then came back to New York, and Roose-velt 
be-gan to stud-y law in the of-fice of his un-cle, Rob-ert B. 
Roose-velt, and al-so at Co-lum-bia Col-lege, in that city. 

It was but a short time be-fore he was talked of as a man 
to help rule New York; — to go to the State Cap-i-tol as an 
6 4 As-sem-bly-man. ' ' 

Some men did not want him, for they said he would be 
sure to have his own way and rule them; and they wished to 
rule him ; but oth-er men of the best class said : 

"Yes, he will get his own way; but it will be the right 
way. ' ' 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



99 



In the end, these men won the day, and Roose-velt took 
the first step that led him to the Pres-i-dent's seat in Wash- 
ing-ton. 

He served New York Cit-y in a brave, strong way, made 
a fight for the best, the right side as he saw it, for three terms ; 
and it was dur-ing these years that his daugh-ter Al-ice was 
born and that his young wife died. It was while he was hard 
at work at the State cap-i-tal that Roose-velt wrote, and gave 
to the world, a book which told of the part the ships took in 
our great war of 1812 : 6 6 Na-val His-to-ry of the War of 1812, ' ' 
this book is called ; and is known as a great book to-day. When 
he left Al-ba-ny, he tried to write a-gain ; but he was in much 
grief ov-er his wife 's death ; and his old love for the wild life 
of the plains in the West called him to go there and to hunt, 
to ride, to fish, to learn to know the life and the men out there. 

So he went to North Da-ko-ta, where a riv-er, the Lit-tle 
Mis-sou-ri, winds through what are called the "Bad Lands"; 
and here he took two ranch-es, and be-gan the life of a ranch- 
man, a cow-boy. 

While here, on the plains, Roose-velt learned much of the 
life of an-i-mals, which he put in-to books lat-er on. 

But, fond as he was of this life, he had no mind to stay 
there long ; and so, one day, at the call of his friends in New 
York, he hung up his gun, packed his trunk, said good-bye to 
the men who cheered him as he left, and came back to be put 
up for May-or of New York Cit-y. Some men had grown 
tired of the rule of those who took these big plac-es just for 
their own gain ; and they want-ed a clean, good man, who was 
so strong and brave he would do the right thing for the cit-y, 
at all odds ; so they put up Roose-velt ; but more men wished 
the old rule to go on, and so Roose-velt lost the day; but he 
did not lose heart ; he kept right on in his fight for the right. 



100 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



It was at this time, on De-cem-ber 2, 1886, that Roose-velt 
mar-ried a-gain, this time Miss E-dith Ker-mit Ca-rew, whom 
he had kixnvn when they were chil-dren. 

Roose-velt has said that the way to do what you wish in 
this world, is to stick at it; and he proved his own words by 
the way he kept a big place in the war in New York Cit-y of 
good a-gainst bad; and in 1889, he w T on his fight, by be-ing 
made a Civ-il Serv-ice Com-mis-sion-er. 

This sounds ver-y big, these long words ; but it means he 
was put in a place where his work was to see that all w T ho 
wish to work for the U-ni-ted States should have a fair chance 
to prove they could do the work; he held this place for six 
years, and did his work so well that at the end of that time, 
in 1895, he was placed at the head of the whole po-lice force 
in New York Cit-y. Here he had hard work, for it was now 
his place to see that the po-lice did their du-ty, and stopped all 
wrong, bad things, for ma-ny of them had tak-en mon-ey from 
bad men, and let them do just as they wished. 

You may be sure that Roose-velt soon put a stop to this ; 
he put out all po-lice-men who would not do right, and helped 
all those who tried to do their du-ty. 

In 1897, when Wil-liam Mc-Kin-ley was pres-i-dent, he 
called Roose-velt to Wash-ing-ton as ' 1 First As-sis-tant of the 
Na-vy"; this big name means he was to help the Pres-i-dent 
and the Sec-re-tary of the Na-vy in all the work a-bout our 
big war-ships. Our ships were not in a ve-ry good state at 
this time, and Roose-velt worked hard to get a big-ger and a 
bet-ter na-vy ; he al-so saved us a good deal of mon-ey by the 
care he took in get-ting things at a low price for the big boats. 

It soon proved that he was right in all he did, for you 
have seen, in the life of Mc-Kin-ley, that it was at this time 
we were plunged in-to war with Spain. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



101 



As soon as it was sure that we had to fight Spain, Roose- 
velt left his post in Wash-ing-ton, and you know from this 
same life of Mc-Kin-ley what a brave part he and his Rough 
Rid-ers — his old col-lege chums, and the cow-boy friends of 
his youth— played in this war. 

Af-ter the war was ov-er, Roose-velt felt sor-ry for the 
men, who did not have good food and who were still down 
there in Cu-ba, half of them sick and all long-ing for home. 
So he and the rest of the head men sent word back to the 
U-ni-ted States that the men were ill-fed and sick and longed 
to leave this hot, wet isl-and and come home. 

Peo-ple here made such a cry, when they heard of it, that 
the troops were at once called home ; so ma-ny of the men were 
sick that the ships bear-ing them took them all to Mon-tauk 
Point, way up on the east shore of Long Isl-and; and there 
they spent a month, in tents, while the fresh, cool air from 
the sea, and good food and care, gave back health and strength 
to them. 

Roose-velt was now a Col-o-nel, and he stayed with his 
men and saw that the camp was kept clean and that the men 
had the best of care. 

At last the men were all so well that they could go to their 
homes; and on the last Sun-day in camp Roose-velt made a 
S23eech to the men, and they gave to him a bronze of a "Bron-co 
Bus-ter, ' ' which he prized ve-ry much. 

On the morn-ing of Sep-tem-ber 15, four months from 
the time the Rough Rid-ers had joined with Roose-velt for 
the war, the flags came down at the camp, and it was time to 
say good-bye. 

The war with Spain was at an end ; but peace had not 
come to the Phil-ip-pines and our troops were down there and 
would be for some time to come. Roose-velt could have stayed 



102 



LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 



in the ar-my and won fame in a short time ; but the men in 
New York State now wished him to be gov-er-nor of the State ; 
and Roose-velt was glad of the chance to help the best men 
rule the State in a wise and good way. 

It meant a big fight to win this high place; and he and 
his friends knew it, but they went in with a will ; and on the 
day his name was put up at Al-ba-ny, his friends filled the 
cit-y, — Rough Rid-ers were there too ; and on all sides his name 
was heard. Some one in the street would say : " Three cheers 
for Ted-dy ! ' ' and the air would ring with the shouts. 

As soon as his name was put up in the big hall, cheers 
were heard, and when the votes were made known, Roose-velt 
had 753 and the oth-er man on-ly 218. So then his par-ty 
said they would all vote for him, and a-mid loud cheers this 
was done. 

Then came the real fight, — and Roose-velt went from cit-y 
to cit-y, town to town, mak-ing speech- es, tak-ing a few of his 
Rough Rid-er friends with him; and he was the he-ro, the 
i-dol of the great crowds that rushed to hear him. 

When E-lec-tion Day came, the peo-ple showed their love 
and trust in him, by mak-ing him gov-er-nor of the great State. 

In his high place Roose-velt worked hard for the best 
good of the poor in New York Cit-y; — those who worked day 
and night in what are called " sweat shops," small close rooms 
not fit to live in, where men, wom-en and lit-tle chil-dren sew 
on cloth-ing for the big stores. 

He put through a law which forced the men who owned 
the " sweat shops" to get bet-ter rooms for those who worked 
for them. 

We have seen that Roose-velt would not be ruled by men 
who wished to use him for their own good; he worked for 
the best good of the State al-ways, so when his term came to 



THEODOEE ROOSEVELT. 



103 



an end, these same men, the "boss-es," would not let him be 
put up a-gain ; but put his name up as Yice-Pres-i-dent with 
that of Wil-liam Mc-Kin-ley for Pres-i-dent. 

Roose-velt did not want this place ; he said his work was 
not yet done as gov-er-nor and wished to be in Al-ba-ny four 
years more. But he gave in to his par-ty, and you know that 
Mc-Kin-ley and he won the day. 

It was but a short time, as we have seen, that Roose-velt 
held his .place, for in Sep-tem-ber, 1901, the death of Pres-i- 
dent McKin-ley made him Pres-i-dent. 

He and his fam-i-ly were in the Ad-i-ron-dacks at this 
time ; and Roose-velt had gone to Isle La Motte, not far from 
Bur-ling-ton, and w r as mak-ing a speech when the sad news 
reached him. He took the first train to Buf-fa-lo and made 
all haste to reach Pres-i-dent Mc-Kin-ley 's bed-side. 

It was a ve-ry sad time for both men, for they were warm 
friends. Roose-velt stayed here un-til the Pres-i-dent seemed 
bet-ter, and then as one of his chil-dren was sick went back 
to his wife, in the Ad-i-ron-dacks. 

When he reached them, he got word that the Pres-i-dent 
would sure-ly get w r ell ; and so, with a light heart, he went the 
next day, with some guides, way up in the wild woods. He 
spent that night in camp and the next morn-ing went up the 
rough trail that led to the top of Mt. Mar-cy. 

High up on the side, near a lake called the Tear of the 
Clouds, they sat down to their lunch ; and it was here that a 
man, who had been on his trail for long hours, found him and 
brought him the news that the Pres-i-dent could not live. 

Down the long, hard trail, at once, went Roose-velt, back 
to a club-house, where he hoped for fresh news ; but none was 
there; so his friends told him to rest there, and they would 
send to a club-house low-er down for word. 



104 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



That night the news came at mid-night that the Presi- 
dent was much worse, and Eoosevelt said : 
"I must go at once!" 

A light wag-on was brought up, and in this black mid- 
night hour, with a mist of rain fall-ing, Roose-velt start-ed. 
New hors-es were put in all haste to the wag-on, and on they 
rushed to Al-den Lair, nine miles a-way. 

While on this part of the drive, Pres-i-dent Mc-Kin-ley 
died; so the man rush-ing down the moun-tain side in such 
mad haste was ev-en then the Pres-i-dent of our land. He did 
not know this, and still hoped for the best when, at three o'clock 
in the morn-ing, he reached Al-den Lair and with fresh hors-es 
start-ed on the last six-teen miles to the place where he could 
get a train to Buf-fa-lo. 

When a lit-tle af-ter five that morn-ing he reached this 
place, North Creek, he found a train held for him, and learned 
the Pres-i-dent was dead. 

As fast as a train could go, he was rushed down to Al- 
ba-ny, where the Sec-re-ta-ry of State, Mr. Hay, met him, and 
told him it was thought best he should be at once sworn in as 
Pres-i-dent. 

They went on to Buf-fa-lo in all haste and to the house 
where the dead Pres-i-dent lay. 

He took the oath of his high of-fice as soon as he left the 
house, and was the young-est man who had ev-er be-come 
Pres-i-dent. 

In his short speech he said he should try to do all he felt 
Pres-i-dent Mc-Kin-ley would have done for the good of the 
land. 

When he reached Wash-ing-ton he proved that he meant 
this by ask-ing the men whom Pres-i-dent Mc-Kin-ley had 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



105 



cho-sen to help him, to stay in their plac-es, and give him the 
same help. 

This was the first time that a Pres-i-dent with so ma-ny 
chil-dren ev-er lived in the White House; there were six to 
live here now : Al-ice, The-o-dore, J r., Ker-mit, Eth-el, Archi- 
bald, and Quen-tin, and they were a jol-ly crowd of young 
folks, you may be sure, that romped and played in the big 
house. 

One of the first big things the new Pres-i-dent did was to 
have us buy from the French the right to dig a ca-nal which 
would join the At-lan-tic and Pa-ci-fic oceans, so that ships 
could go from one to the oth-er in less time than they now do ; 
and he pushed this great work on down there in Pan-a-ma 
with all his might. 

In 1902, the men who work in the great coal mines of 
Penn-syl-van-ia did not think they were treat-ed right by those 
who owned the mines ; and so they all stopped work, not a ton 
of coal would they dig, and it looked as if we would have no 
coal for the long, cold months which were near. 

In Oc-to-ber, the Pres-i-dent thought this had gone on too 
long; so he asked the head men on each side to come to see 
him at Wash-ing-ton and talk it ov-er and see if it could not 
be brought to an end. Three times the men met him, and, at 
the end of five months, the big strike came to a close ; the men 
went back to work and the hard time was ov-er. 

From the very first, Pres-i-dent Roose-velt tried to keep 
the men in this land, who have the most mon-ey and own our 
rail-roads, mines, etc., from get-ting too much pow-er and us- 
ing it in a wrong way. It was hard work, and caused ma-ny to 
think hard things of him; but on the whole, most peo-ple 
thought he tried to do the right and wise thing. 

In Feb-ru-a-ry, 1904, war be-gan be-tween Ja-pan and 



106 



LIVES OF THE PKESIDENTS. 



Rus-sia, and it seemed, at first, as if the oth-er lands ov-er 
there, as well as our own, would be dragged in the fight. But 
Roose-velt said we must keep out, called on us all to keep 
still, to do noth-ing which would force us in-to tak-ing sides 
with ei-ther of these lands. At the same time we joined with 
the oth-er lands in say-ing that J a-pan and Rus-sia must car-ry 
on the war in-side cer-tain lines, not any- where they wished, 
on land or sea. 

On A-pril 30, 1904, a great World's Fair was o-pened in 
St. Lou-is and it was planned that Roose-velt should open the 
Pair by tel-e-graph from Wash-ington. A key of white and 
gold was used, and as soon as it was touched, twen-ty-one guns 
roared forth the news that the Fair was o-pen. 

As the term drew near, for our land to choose a new Pres- 
i-dent, Roose-velt hoped that he now might be put up by the 
free will of the peo-ple; he had tried to do what he thought 
right and wise, and hoped he had won the trust of the peo-ple. 

On No-vem-ber 8, 1904, the votes were cast; and Roose- 
velt went in of-fice with the larg-est num-ber of votes ev-er 
be-fore cast for Pres-i-dent ; he was, too, the young-est man 
that had ever held that high place. 

At this time Roose-velt said he would nev-er run for 
Pres-i-dent a-gain, that he would do his best to serve his land 
in the next four years, and then feel that his work as Pres-i- 
dent was done. 

He pushed the work down at Pan-a-ma, sent the best men 
that he could find down there to see that the work was done 
well. 

The war be-tween Rus-sia and Ja-pan was still on, and 
was fierce and cruel; Ja-pan had won most of the time, but 
Rus-sia would not yield, and the whole world longed for peace. 

Roose-velt had watched the war, saw the aw-ful cost in 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



107 



mon-ey and lives, and at last tried to make peace. He wrote 
to the head men of each land, and asked them if they would 
not each try to end the war. 

This start-ed the talk for peace, and the end came in the 
sum-mer of 1905, when the head men from Ja-pan and Eus-sia 
met here in Ports-mouth, 1ST. H., and signed a trea-ty of peace, 
which put an end to the war. 

Eoose-velt was praised and thanked by the whole world 
for his work at this time, and was called "The Peace Mak-er." 

On A-pril 18, 190^, there was an aw-ful earth-quake in 
Cal-i-f or-ni-a ; the first great shock came earl-y in the morn- 
ing and oth-ers came on through the day ; fire broke out, too, 
and soon much of the great cit-y of San Fran-cis-co was wiped 
out, and peo-ple in crowds were left with-out homes or mon-ey. 

Con-gress passed a bill which gave ov-er two mil-lions of 
mon-ey to the poor peo-ple, and food and mon-ey from all the 
oth-er states were sent to the far West with all speed. 

Pres-i-dent Eoose-velt did all in his pow-er to help, and 
gave a good deal of his own mon-ey. 

On June 16, 1906, a new State, made up of Ok-la-ho-ma 
and In-di-an Ter-ri-to-ry, came in-to the Un-ion, and gave us 
one more star on our flag. 

In No-vem-ber of this year, the Pres-i-dent did what no 
oth-er Pres-i-dent had ev-er done up to that time; left the 
U-ni-ted States while in of-fice ; he went down to Por-to Ei-co 
and Pan-a-ma, on the bat-tie-ship Lou-i-si-an-a, to see what 
care we gave to our new isl-and and how far the work had 
gone on the big ca-nal. 

On March 4, 1909, Mr. Taft took his place as Pres-i-dent, 
and Mr. Eoose-velt left Wash-ing-ton and went to his home in 
Oys-ter Bay, L. I. 

On March 23, 1909, he left for a year's trip in-to the heart 



108 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



of Af-ri-ca, to hunt the big game of that land, and to learn all 
he could of their way of life. He was at the head of a large 
par-ty of men who helped him in. this work, and sent back 
the skins and skel-e-tons which were placed in the U-ni-ted 
States Na-tion-al Mu-se-um in Wash-ing-ton. 

When he came back from Af-ri-ca, Roose-velt be-came one 
of the ed-i-tors of a mag-a-zine and spent^nost of his time in 
writ-ing for it and for oth-er mag-a-zines and al-so wrote a 
book a-bout his great hunt-ing trip in Af-ri-ca called "Af-ri- 
can Game Trails. ' ' He kept up his in-ter-est in pub-lic af -fairs 
and made speech-es and wrote pa-pers all for the good of the 
whole peo-ple who loved him and whom he loved. Taf t was 
Pres-i-dent and he and Roose-velt had been dear friends, al- 
most like broth-ers ; in fact, it was Roose-velt more than an-y 
one else who had made Taft the Pres-i-dent af-ter his own 
terms were ov-er. But these two great friends had some sort 
of quar-rel or mis-un-der-stand-ing ; no one ev-er knew 
what it was a-bout, so that they were no long-er friends, and 
when it came time for the great Re-pub-li-can Par-ty to name 
a man to run for Pres-i-dent in 1912, Taft want-ed to be the 
man, and to have a sec-ond term, but at the great con-ven-tion 
man-y want-ed Roose-velt to run a-gain, al-though he had said 
four years be-fore, just af-ter his e-lec-tion, that at the end 
of that term he would nev-er run a-gain. Taft was nom-in- 
at-ed, but Roose-velt and his friends were ang-ry and not sat- 
is-fled, so they held an-oth-er meet-ing and made a new par-ty 
and called it the Pro-gres-sive- Par-ty and nom-in-at-ed Roose- 
velt a-gain. 

Most of this new par-ty was made up of Re-pub-li-cans, 
so that the votes of the great Re-pub-li-can Par-ty, in-stead of 
go-ing to one man, were div-i-ded be-tween the two — Taft and 
Roose-velt — so that Wood-row Wil-son, who had been nom-in- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



109 



at-ed by the great Dem-o-crat-ic Par-ty, got more votes than 
eith-er of them in the e-lec-tion in No-vem-ber, 1912, and was 
e-lect-ed Pres-i-dent. It might have made a great dif-f er-ence 
to all the world if Taft and Roose-velt had not quar-reled. 
Noth-ing good ev-er comes out of a fool-ish quar-rel. 

Roose-velt con-tin-ued to write for mag-a-zines and the 
peo-ple still loved him, but he nev-er a-gain held pub-lic of-fice 
and died at his home at Oys-ter Bay on Jan-u-ary 6, 1919, and 
is bur-ied there, and his grave is hon-ored as that of a great 
and pure mind-ed man who loved his coun-try and did much 
for it. He will al-ways be known as one of our great-est Pres- 
idents and a great A-mer-ic-an. 



110 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



WIL-LIAM HOW-ARD TAPT 

Wil-liam How-ard Taft, the twen-ty-eighth Pres-i-dent 
of the U-ni-ted States, was born on Sep-tem-ber 15, 1857, in 
a small town, Mt. Au-burn, which is now part of the cit-y of 
Cin-cin-na-ti ; his f ath-er, Al-phon-so Taft, was born in Towns- 
end, Yer-mont, went to Yale Col-lege, was a wise judge in the 
courts of Cin-cin-na-ti, and then helped his coun-try by act-ing 
first as Sec-re-ta-ry of War, and then as our Min-is-ter, first 
to Aus-tri-a, and then to Rus-sia. 

His moth-er, Lou-ise M. Tor-rey, was born in Bos-ton, 
Mass., and came from a race of brave, strong men and wom-en. 
Such a real boy was lit-tle Wil-liam How-ard Taft, so full of 
life and fun, that I want you to learn just a lit-tle of the boy- 
hood days in that har>-py Mt. Au-burn home. 

The house, which by the way still stands, was on a ridge, 
with "Butch-er Town" to the east, and "Tail-or Town" to 
the west; and be-tween the boys of these " Towns," and the 
"Ridge" boys, was a "feud" that ran back long years; and 
the Taft boys took their part in the fights with great zest. 
Taft, as you may guess, took the lead in these fights ; and one 
of the nick-names the boys gave him, — he had ma-ny of them, — 
was "Lead-Head and Cot-ton Bod-y," be-cause, when he fell, 
it was al-ways on his head. He threw him-self heart and soul 
in-to an-y sport, and one of his pet games was mar-bles ; he 
al-so loved to wres-tle ; he could swim well, and though he was 
too stout and heav-y to play base-ball well, he tried to, and 



WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT. 



Ill 



made a good show at it. "He had the pluck, all right," as the 
boys said. 

"Old Bill," as the boys loved to call him, had the trust 
of all who knew him, and these same boys, now big men, still 
trust "Old Bill"; one of the best known men in Cin-cin-na-ti 
said he would lend "Bill" Taft the last cent he had, with not 
a scrap of pa-per to show for it; and a wise law-yer of the 
same place said there was not mon-ey e-nough in the world 
to buy him. 

Taft worked at his books just as hard as he did at his play ; 
he was keen to learn, to "know things''; and fresh from a 
base-ball field, a good hard fight with the boys of "Butch-er" 
and "Tail-or" towns, or some oth-er out-door sports, he would 
come in the house, not to boast or talk of his strength or skill, 
but to take down his books and go to work at them. 

The first school to which Taft went was a gram-mar school 
near his home ; the Wood-bur-y High School came next ; and 
from here he came fifth in line in the bright-est class that ev-er 
left the school. 

In 1874, when he was sev-en-teen, he went up to Yale ; a 
big, strong boy, whose weight was 225 pounds. 

He boxed, wres-tled, played foot-ball, mixed with the boys 
in all their sports, and so kept his health and strength; but 
he joined no teams; only once was he the an-chor in a "tug- 
of-war." 

It was when his class of '78 was a-bout to leave Yale 
and in a "tug-of-war" with the jun-ior class lost at the first 
"tug"; when they tried the next time, Taft rushed in, grabbed 
the end of the rope and shout-ed : 

"Xow let the whole jun-ior class get on the oth-er end!" 
His class yelled with joy, for with "Old Bill" on their end, 
the jun-iors could not budge the rope. 



112 



LIVES OF THE PKESIDENTS. 



But Taf t had gone to col-lege to win hon-ors in his books, 
as his fath-er and old-er broth-er, Charles, had be-fore him; 
and he put his great strength and his clear brain at work ; and 
day by day, and les-son by les-son, made his way slow but sure 
up close to the head of his class. He did not shut him-self 
from the rest of the boys ; he loved them and they loved him ; 
he did not preach to them, — they did as they chose, and he 
"played" when he had time; he could not be out late at night, 
or give time for sports and yet keep up with the book work ; 
so he turned his back on much that he loved, and plod-ded 
straight on to win his high place. 

And how die men loved him at Yale, and how he loved 
and still loves the old col-lege ! 

He left Yale in 1878, sec-ond in his class ; and he was the 
choice of his class as or-a-tor of the day, a ve-ry high hon-or 
which proves how he was loved. 

Taft went straight from Yale to the Law School of Cin- 
cin-na-ti Col-lege and left there in 1880, he and a class-mate 
tak-ing the first prize ; Yale soon af -ter this made him a Doc- 
tor of Laws. He worked for a time on the Times Star, a news- 
pa-per which his broth-er Charles owned ; and he did so well 
that he found work on the Com-mer-cial Ga-zette, for which 
he got at first six dol-lars a week. 

He gave up this work to go in his fath-er 's law of-fice as 
a law clerk ; al-most at once he went in-to pol-i-tics, those of his 
own cit-y, and was a lead-er here as he had been in his school 
and col-lege days. Taft knew no fear, stood for the right in 
all things, and tried to have the bad, low side in the pol-i-tics 
of Cin-cin-na-ti made clean ; so the men who worked with him 
gave him in 1881 his first pub-lic of-fice, that of As-sis-tant 
Pros-e-cut-ing At-tor-ney, which gave him the right to try, 
at least, to have those who cheat-ed and stole sent to jail. Four 



WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT. 



years from tliis time lie had his next pub-lic place, which paid 
him $400 a month ; but he gave this up soon and went back to 
his fath-er's law of-fice. Soon af-ter this, in June, 1886, he 
mar-ried Miss Hel-en Her-ron, whom he had known since he 
was a boy. They spent a few months in Eu-rope, and then 
made their home in Cin-cin-na-ti ; there were three chil-dren, 
Kob-ert, Hel-en, and Charles. 

Taft has been in pub-lic of-fice ev-er since he held his 
first one in 1881 ; and he has won his w T ay, by hard work in 
good faith, right up to the Pres-i-dent 's seat. He has had big 
hard things to do and he has gone all ov-er the world to do 
them ; from the isl-ands of Cu-ba and Por-to Ei-co, in the east, 
to those of the Phil-ip-pines on the oth-er side of the world; 
from A-las-ka up in the cold north to Pan-a-ma in the far 
south, where we are cut-ting the great ca-nal, Taft has gone 
to bring peace in lit-tle things as well as in big; and so well 
has he done his work that he is loved by all in these far-off 
lands, and known as a wise and a good man to all the world. 

One of the hard-est things he had to do was to bring peace 
in-to the Phil-ip-pine Isl-ands ; when we took these isl-ands — 
1,500 of them there are — all sorts of wild tribes lived there 
at war with each oth-er and know-ing lit-tle of good. 

It was Pres-i-dent Mc-Kin-ley who sent Taft out there, 
first as head of some men who went there to see just what 
could be done to help the peo-ple, and then as Gov-er-nor of 
the Isl-ands. He did his work with so much of real love in 
his heart for the peo-ple and helped them so real-ly that the 
Fil-i-pinos grew to love him and begged him to stay with them 
al-ways. 

Twice when he could have gone home and been given the 
great hon-or of a seat as a Jus-tice of the Su-preme Court of 
the U-ni-ted States, he did as they wished, and stayed in the 



1U 



LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 



isl-ands, and when at last Pres-i-dent Roose-velt asked Mm to 
come and help him as Sec-re-ta-ry of War, he said he would 
take the place on-ly if he might still keep the Fil-i-pi-nos in 
his care. He be-came Sec-re-ta-ry of War in 1903, and has 
since then been twice to see "his peo-ple," as he calls them. 

In this high place, Taft stood for peace, first, last, and 
all the time; he took a tour of the whole world, just so he 
could talk in each place he came to, of peace. 

The sum-mer home of the Tafts is up in Can-a-da, and 
the Tafts love to go and live the same out-of-door life that the 
Eoose-velts did at Oys-ter Bay ; here, Taft not on-ly plays hard 
at golf, swdm-ming, boat-ing, and tramp-ing, but works hard, 
too, just as he did as a boy. 

One of the last things Taft did, be-fore his name was put 
up for Pres-i-dent, was to go down to the Phil-ip-pine Isl-ands 
in 1907, to see "his peo-ple " start the work of tak-ing charge 
of their own land, for though we still keep our sol-diers there 
to keep peace, ma-ny of the Fil-i-pi-nos have learned so much 
from us that they can help us in our w r ork there. 

Roose-velt and Taft were close friends, al-most like broth- 
ers, and when Roose-velt 's second term as Pres-i-dent was 
com-ing to an end in 1908, it was Roose-velt who in-sist-ed that 
Taft, who was then the Sec-re-ta-ry of War, should be the 
one to suc-ceed him in that great of-fice, for which his wis-dom 
and trav-el and train-ing had so well fitted him. 

So in 1908, the Re-pub-li-cans put up for Pres-i-dent this 
man who had for all these years been work-ing for his land ; 
and men had so much trust in him, so much of real love for 
him, that he had more votes than any oth-er man had ev-er 
be-fore had for this great place; and so won the day, ov-er 
Wil-liam J en-nings Bry-an, who was the choice of the Dem-o- 
crats. 



WILLIAM HOWAKD TAFT. 



115 



In Jan-u-ary, 1909, Mr. Taft sailed from Charles-ton, 
S. C, for Pan-a-ma, to see, once more, be-fore he took his place 
as Pres-i-dent, just how far the work on the ca-nal had gone ; 
he and the men who had gone with him looked at all the work 
there with great care, and were much pleased with what had 
been done. Mr. Taft said that each cent that had been spent 
had been well spent. He reached this land a-gain on Feb-ru- 
ary 11th, and on March 4th took the oath of of-fice which put 
him in the Pres-i-dent 's seat in Wash-ing-ton. There was a 
great snow-storm on that day, so that for the first time since 
An-drew Jack-son was made Pres-i-dent for the sec-ond time, 
the oath of of-fice was tak-en in Sen-ate Hall in-stead of out- 
doors, where the great crowd that filled the cit-y could hear 
and see Mr. Taft be-come Pres-i-dent of our land. 

Taft's term as Pres-i-dent was a qui-et one. He made 
friends, and his pleas-ant man-ner kept all things go-ing 
smooth-ly. But for some rea-son which no one has ev-er found 
out, the two great friends — Taft and Eoose-velt — grew cool to 
each oth-er and were no long-er on good terms. This was a 
real blow to all the peo-ple, for these two great men, who both 
loved their coun-try with all their strength, should have worked 
side by side for the good of the whole land. 

As it was, when Taft's term as Pres-i-dent came to a close 
and he want-ed to be e-lec-ted for a sec-ond term, Eoose-velt 's 
friends would not a-gree to it, and when Taft was at last 
chos-en by the Ee-pub-li-can Par-ty to run for a sec-ond term, 
Eoose-velt and his friends would not help him, and in-sist-ed 
on mak-ing a new par-ty, which they called the Pro-gres-sive 
Par-ty, and put Eoose-velt at the head as its man to run for 
Pres-i-dent, al-though Eoose-velt had said four }^ears be-fore 
that he would nev-er run a-gain for Pres-i-dent. The end was 
that both Taft and Eoose-velt were eas-i-ly beat-en by Wood- 



116 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



row Wil-son, who be-came the twen-ty-eighth Pres-i-dent and 
who was named by the great Dem-o-crat-ic Par-ty and got 
all the votes of that par-ty, while the Re-pub-li-can votes were 
div-i-ded be-tween Taft and Roose-velt. 

Taft, when he left of-flce, went a-gain to prac-tice law and 
he was al-so made a pro-fes-sor of law at Yale Col-lege, the 
same col-lege he had gone to as a young man. 

When in 1921 the Chief Jus-tice of the U-ni-ted States 
Su-preme Court died, Pres-i-dent Hard-ing gave this great 
place to Taft, who be-came the Chief Jus-tice of the U-ni-ted 
States for the rest of his life, one of the high-est hon-ors in 
the whole world and a place for which his great wis-dom and 
knowl-edge of law and the great of -flees he has held make him 
the best man that could have been chos-en. 



WOOD ROW WILSON 



117 



WOOD-ROW WIL-SON" 

Wood-row Wil-son was the twen-ty-eighth Pres-i-dent of 
the U-ni-ted States. When he was born he was named Thom-as 
Wood-row Wil-son by his par-ents, but when he was a young 
man he gave up the name of Thom-as and from that time on 
he was known as Wood-row Wil-son. 

Thom-as is sure-ly a good name, like George, or John, or 
Rob-ert, and why he gave it up seems strange, but per-haps a 
boy does not need too long a name when he is go-ing to be a 
great man. May-be it would not sound well to call a great 
Pres-i-dent "Tom." 

He was born in Staunton, a small town in Vir-gin-ia, on 
De-cem-ber 28, 1856. Five of our Pres-i-dents have been born 
in the State of Vir-gin-ia, which gives the state the name of 
"Moth-er of Pres-i-dents," but Pres-i-dent Wil-son did not 
live there long, and he was e-lect-ed from the State of New 
Jer-sey, so Vir-gin-ia can-not real-ly claim him. 

His grand-f ath-er came from Ire-land and went to O-hi-o 
in 1812, and Wood-row Wil-son 's f ath-er was born in O-hi-o 
in 1822. His fath-er's name was James Wil-son m& he was 
the young-est of sev-en boys, so that Wood-row Wil-son had 
six un-cles. All these un-cles and his f ath-er were print-ers 
by trade and they owned small news-pa-pers in Pitts-burgh, 
Penn-syl-van-ia and Steu-ben-ville, O-hi-o, but Wood-row's 
f ath-er dropped the fam-i-ly trade and be-came a min-is-ter of 
the Pres-by-ter-ian Church. James Wil-son was a teach-er 
in an ac-ad-emy, as well as a minister, and he mar-ried one 



118 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



of Ms pu-pils, Miss Jan-et Wood-row, whose fath-er was al-so 
a min-is-ter, who had come to Can-a-da from Scot-land and 
then moved to O-hi-o. It is from his moth-er that Pres-i-dent 
Wil-son got his name Wood-row. It is a fine thing to give a 
boy his moth-er 's fam-i-ly name. Don't you think so"? 

Thom-as Wood-row Wil-son was a small boy all through 
our great Civ-il War, be-tween the North and the South, which 
was for four years, from 1861 to 1865. That bad war is long 
past and has left our great coun-try u-ni-ted and all the bad 
f eel-ings it caused are f or-got-ten now. But things were ver-y 
bad in those days in some parts of the South, where the Wil- 
sons then lived, and there were no real schools to go to then 
as there are to-day in ev-er-y town and vil-lage in our whole 
land, and Wood-row Wil-son w r as more than nine years old 
be-fore he could read. What do you think of that, you who 
are in school to-day ? Soon af-ter that his folks moved to Co- 
lum-bia, South Car-o-li-na, where Wood-row T went to a real 
school and lat-er to a small col-lege. Then, when he was nine- 
teen years old, he went to Prince-ton Col-lege at Prince-ton, 
New Jersey, one of the great-est col-leges in our coun-try. 

He was not so smart at col-lege, as he was only 38 in a 
class of 106 when he was gracl-u-at-ed, but he took a good 
part in all the de-bates and lit-er-ary tasks there and wrote 
some very fine piec-es which were print-ed in great news- 
pa-pers and mag-a-zines. He wrote on things which had to 
do w T ith the whole peo-ple and pub-lic mat-ters, and so proved 
his love for his coun-try, which he showed so much in lat-er 
years when he be-came a great Pres-i-dent. 

He went to a law school to be-come a law-yer when he 
was grad-u-at-ed from Prince-ton Col-lege. His health was 
not good at this time, so he did not prac-tice as a law-yer ex- 
cept for a lit-tle while at At-lan-ta, Georg-ia. He stayed at 



WOODKOW WILSON 



119 



liome for some time. Then lie went to an-oth-er great col-lege 
called J ohns Hop-kins U-ni-ver-si-ty, in Bal-ti-more, Ma-ry- 
land, and there he stud-ied hard for two years. See how man-y 
schools, col-leges and u-ni-ver-si-ties this great man went to, 
to make him-self fit to take a great place in the world. For 
years he gave most of his time to stud-y. 

Al-most all of Wood-row Wil-son 's life, be-fore he be-came 
Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States, was given to stud-y and 
teach-ing. In 1885 he was pro-f es-sor at Bryn Mawr Col-lege 
for girls, near Phil-a-del-phia. (Is-n't Bryn Mawr a hard 
name to pro-nounce?) And then in 1888 he went to his old 
col-lege at Prince-ton, New Jer-sey, where he stayed for 
twen-ty years as teach-er and pro-fes-sor. 

In 1885 he mar-ried Miss El-len Lou-ise Ax-on of Sav-an- 
nah, Georg-ia. 

Wood-row Wil-son was a great writ-er as well as a teach-er 
and states-man. In the years when he was pro-fes-sor at 
Prince-ton Col-lege he wrote man-y great books, of which the 
best are his "His-to-ry of the A-mer-i-can Peo-ple" and "Life 
of Wash-ing-ton. " Both of these great books ought to be read 
by ev-er-y young A-mer-i-can when he is old e-nough. Ev-er-y 
page shows the great-ness of our be-lov-ed coun-try and the 
de-vo-tion of the men who have made it great. 

In 1902, Wood-row Wil-son was made pres-i-dent of 
Prince-ton U-ni-ver-si-ty, where he had been a pro-fes-sor for 
four-teen years. As pres-i-dent of this great col-lege he kept 
up its great name and fame, and he was known to all the good 
men of the coun-try, es-pec-ial-ly of the State of New Jer-sey, 
so that when the peo-ple of New Jer-sey were to e-lect a gov- 
er-nor of that state in 1910, the Dem-o-crat-ic Par-ty chose 
Wil-son to run as its can-di-date, and he was e-lect-ed by a 
big ma-jor-i-ty of the votes. 



120 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



He was a good gov-er-nor and he was praised for his 
hon-es-ty and a-bil-i-ty. The gov-er-nor is the great-est pub-lic 
man in each state, and all good peo-ple try to get the best man 
to put in that of -flee. There are some bad men in ev-er-y cit-y 
and state who try to put bad men in of-fice so that they can 
get some spec-ial f a-vors for them-selves, which hurts the rest 
of the peo-ple, and all good peo-ple fight a-gainst this and try 
to choose on-ly good men. It is hard some-times to do this, 
for the bad men in pol-i-tics lie and cheat, but in the long run 
the good men come out on top. 

While he was still gov-er-nor of New Jer-sey in 1912, it 
was time for the e-lec-tion of a new Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted 
States. This is the great-est place in all the world. No King 
or Em-per-or in these days has so great a pow-er, and it comes 
from the love and con-fi-dence of the peo-ple, and not by birth, 
be-cause they think the man they choose as Pres-i-dent is a 
great and good man, and will be just and fair and square with 
all of them ; will pro-tect them and try to make their lives and 
prop-er-ty safe. 

Wood-row Wil-son was named for Pres-i-dent by the 
Dem-o-crat-ic Par-ty at a meet-ing or con-ven-tion in Bal-ti- 
more- Ma-ry-land, in Ju-ly, 1912. The e-lec-tion was held in 
No-vem-ber of that year, and though there were two oth-er 
great men run-ning a-gainst him — ex-Pres-i-dent Roose-velt 
and ex-Pres-i-dent Taft — he was e-lect-ed by a large ma-jor- 
i-ty, which means he got more votes than eith-er of the oth-ers. 

It must be said that both Roose-velt and Taft be-longed 
to the great Re-pub-li-can Par-ty, and so the votes of the 
peo-ple of that par-ty were di-vid-ed. If on-ly one had been 
vot-ed for, per-haps Wil-son would not have been e-lect-ed. 
But as it was, Wil-son was chos-en. 

Soon came, in 1914, the great war in Eu-rope, the great-est 



WOODKOW WILSON 



121 



war in all his-to-ry and the most wick-ed. The real cause of 
the war will al-ways be in doubt, but al-most all the na-tions 
of Eu-rope and al-most all in the whole world were soon fight- 
ing. There never was any-thing so bad be-fore. There were 
Ger-ma-ny, Aus-tri-a and Hun-ga-ry on one side, and Eng- 
land, France and Rus-sia on the oth-er; and all the smal-ler 
na-tions, like Tur-key, Greece and Ser-bi-a, at last had to fight 
on one side or the oth-er. It looked, as if the whole world was 
cra-zy. Mil-lions of young men were killed and wound-ed and 
whole towns and cit-ies burned and de-stroyed. Al-most all 
the mon-ey the whole world had saved up was spent for guns 
and pow-der and dead-ly bombs. 

In the U-ni-ted States we were a long way off from this 
aw-ful war in Eu-rope, and we hoped we would not have to 
take a part in it, and have our boys killed and wound-ed and 
blind-ed, and their fath-ers and moth-ers bro-ken heart-ed. 

Pres-i-dent Wil-son was firm in his wish to keep us at 
peace, and did ev-ery-thing he could to keep us out of this 
ter-ri-ble war for a long time. 

But a great .ship named the "Lu-si-tan-ia," which had 
man-y A-mer-i-cans on board, was sunk by a sub-ma-rine boat 
of one of the fight-ing na-tions, and most on board were 
drowned ; and in spite of our pro-test this same na-tion sank 
some more of our A-mer-i-can ships with-out warn-ing, and 
oth-er ships with A-mer-i-cans on them, and said they would 
sink , all they could. 

So, when in 1916, Pres-i-dent Wil-son was e-lect-ed for 
a sec-ond term, and al-though the coun-try praised him for 
his pa-tience and his care in keep-ing us out of the fear-ful 
war as long as he did, our peo-ple could stand it no long-er, 
and in A-pril, 1917, Pres-i-dent Wil-son and the U-ni-ted 
States Con-gress de-clared war on Ger-ma-ny. 



122 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



In 1917 and 1918 our coun-try was wild with pa-tri-o-tism. 
Four mil-lion young men were put in-to the ar-my and made 
per-fect sol-diers. Two mil-lions of them were sent a-cross 
the o-cean to France, where they fought side by side with the 
French-men and Eng-lish-men a-gainst Ger-ma-ny. There 
were thou-sands of brave men who nev-er came back and are 
laid in their graves in France. There were thou-sands who 
did come back, with bro-ken legs or arms, or blinded eyes, 
nev-er to be a-ble to work a-gain or live a hap-py life as most 
of us do. How we should hon-or and rev-er-ence those who 
died for our coun-try 's sake, or were wound-ed in her cause! 

Our sol-diers won the war. The ar-mies in Eu-rope were 
tired out, and our fresh young sol-diers gave our side the fl-nal 
vic-to-ry. On No-vem-ber 11, 1918, this aw-ful, wick-ed war 
was done. 

Should the need ev-er come a-gain, which God for-bid, 
may the men of our coun-try then be as read-y to do their 
du-ty as the boys were in 1917 and 1918. 

When the war was done, came the plans for peace, which 
should last long and make it im-pos-si-ble for there to be an-y 
more wars. Pres-i-dent Wil-son had a won-der-ful plan to 
make all the na-tions on earth in-to one great u-ni-ted na-tion, 
some-thing as all our states ; New York, New J er-sey, O-hi-o, 
Cal-i-f or-nia and the others are all held to-geth-er in one great 
U-ni-ted States. Wil-son called his plan ' ' The League of Na- 
tions," and it was a splen-did i-dea; and in Paris, France, 
where the peace meet-ing was held, al-most ev-ery-bod-y liked 
it, but in our own coun-try most of our peo-ple were not quite 
sure a-bout it. They thought we had bet-ter let the old coun- 
tries man-age their own busi-ness and not get us mixed up 
with them, as they were so far a-way and have dif-fer-ent 
hab-its and lan-guag-es and most ev-ery-thing dif-fer-ent. Our 



WOODEOW WILSON 



123 



great George Wash-ing-ton, the "Fath-er of His Conn-try" 
and our first Pres-i-dent, in a great speech at the close of his 
life, out of his great wis-dom told us not to mix up in Eu-ro- 
pe-an af -fairs. 

Pres-i-dent Wil-son was trou-bled be-cause all our peo-ple 
did not like his plan, and he could not get the U-ni-ted States 
Sen-ate to a-gree to his plan for a " League of Na-tions," and 
if the Sen-ate did not a-gree, the plan could not be car-ried out. 

So Pres-i-dent Wil-son made a trip all ov-er the coun-try 
to man-y cit-ies in all the states, and he spoke to the peo-ple 
in all these plac-es and tried to get them to a-dopt his plan ; 
and, while all the peo-ple want-ed to have all wars stopped 
for-ever, af-ter hav-ing just been through that most aw-ful 
one, they were not all sure that Pres-i-dent Wil-son \s plan for 
a " League of Na-tions" was the saf-est one. Most of the 
peo-ple were a-f raid, as George Wash-ing-ton was, of get-ting 
too much mixed up in Eu-rope's quar-rels and hav-ing to take 
sides to help some for-eign coun-try with our sol-diers and 
sail-ors when it was no busi-ness of ours. 

Pres-i-dent Wil-son 's health broke down on this great 
trip he made through the coun-try, and had to go back home 
to the White House in Wash-ing-ton, where he was a sick man, 
hard-ly a-ble to walk or move, un-til the end of his term as 
Pres-i-dent, which was March 4, 1921. 

He nev-er got well a-gain, and lived qui-et-ly in his own 
house in Wash-ing-ton, D. C, un-til he died in Jan-u-ary, 1924. 

He is buried in a vault in the great ca-the-dral in Wash- 
ing-ton. 

His first wife died in Au-gust, 1914, and in De-cem-ber, 
1915, he mar-ried Mrs. E-dith Bol-ling Gait of Wash-ing-ton, 
D. C. 



124 



LIVES OF THE PKESIDENTS. 



WAR-REN GAM-A-LIEL HARD-ING 

War-ren Gam-a-liel Hard-ing was the twen-ty-ninth 
Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States. Gam-a-liel is a strange 
name, but it is a good name, and is from the Bi-ble. A great 
man-y first names for boys, and girls too, come from the 
Bi-ble, though per-haps not so much now as in years a-go. 

He was born on No-vem-ber 2, 1865, near the vil-lage of 
Bloom-ing Grove, in the State of O-hi-o. It was hard-ly a 
vil-lage, just a set-tle-ment in a clear-ing in the woods. His 
f ore-fath-ers had been in A-mer-i-ca since be-fore the Rev-o- 
lu-tion-ary War, some in the State of Mas-sa-chu-setts, some 
in Con-nect-i-cut. They did their share in those earl-y days, 
by mak-ing roads where there had been on-ly In-di-an trails, 
and ev-en fought with the In-di-ans. They worked hard, and 
built log cab-ins and tilled the soil so that their chil-dren and 
grand-chil-dren and great-grand-chil-dren might have homes 
in this great land we call the U-ni-ted States. From New 
Eng-land some of Pres-i-dent Hard-ing's an-ces-tors moved 
west to O-hi-o and there they stopped and stayed for good. 
His mother was of Hol-land Dutch birth, from a pi-o-neer 
fam-i-ly in the State of Penn-syl-va-nia. His fath-er was a 
coun-try doc-tor, as well as a far-mer, and had a good prac- 
tice a-mong the peo-ple round a-bout, which grew larg-er as 
more peo-ple came to live near him. He was a-ble to save 
mon-ey to give his chil-dren good school-ing. He had eight 
chil-dren, of which War-ren, who was to be our Pres-i-dent, 



WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING. 



125 



was the old-est. It is said that his moth-er had a firm faith, 
from the time he was five years old, that her son would one 
day be the Pres-i-dent of our coun-try. A great many moth-ers 
have felt the same way. An-y boy who is born in the U-ni-ted 
States can be-come Pres-i-dent, but of course on-ly a-bout one 
out of fif-ty mil-lion boys does reach that great place. 

His moth-er saw him a Sen-a-tor and Lieu-ten-ant Gov-er- 
nor of O-hi-o, but did not live to see him in the great-est place 
of all. 

As the old-est boy, War-ren had to work hard on the farm 
and help out, as his fath-er was a-way from home a good deal 
on his doc-tor's vis-its. 

He was taught to read at home and could do so when four 
years old. His earl-y school-ing was at the lit-tle red school- 
house at Cal-e-do-nia, O-hi-o, where his folks had moved at 
that time. But as he was the old-est of the children he had 
most of the care of the farm on his young shoul-ders in the 
spring and sum-mer, as his fath-er gave more and more time 
to his doc-tor's work. At four-teen he went to O-hi-o Cen-tral 
Col-lege at I-ber-ia, O-hi-o. It was called a col-lege in those 
days, but would be called a high-school now. That was the 
end of his reg-u-lar school days. He taught school for a lit-tle 
while. Al-most all of our great men who have be-come Pres-i- 
dent taught school when they were young men. They did it to 
earn mon-ey some-times, so they could stud-y more and be-come 
law-yers. On-ly one of them kept on be-ing a teach-er for 
years, and that one was Pres-i-dent Wil-son, who was Pres-i- 
dent just be-fore Hard-ing. 

When he was a small lad less than twelve years old, he 
worked in the of -flee of a news-pa-per called the Ar-gus, in 
his home town of Cal-e-do-nia. He was not tall e-nough to 
reach up to the print-er's case or bench. A boy in a print-ing 



126 



LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 



shop is called a "print-er's devvil," per-haps be-cause he can 
do so much mis-chief. Some-times we have heard lit-tle boys 
called lit-tle "dev-ils" who were not in print-ers' shops, but 
could get in-to all kinds of mis-chief just the same. 

A "print-er's dev-il" has a dir-ty job; the ink is black 
and stick-y and gets all ov-er his face and hands and clothes, 
and he has to clean the type and the press, and run er-rands 
and do all kinds of chores, but it is a lot of fun at that, and a 
boy can learn a lot in such a shop. Most boys who be-gin in 
a print-er's shop nev-er for-get it, and most of them stick to 
the trade and be-come news-pa-per men, re-port-ers and ed-i- 
tors, and make the great dai-ly pa-pers we read ev-ery day 
with all the news and pic-tures and com-ic pag-es. It is a 
ver-y ex-cit-ing and in-ter-est-ing busi-ness. 

When Hard-ing was nine-teen years old his fam-i-ly 
moved to Mar-i-on, O-hi-o, and that was his home all the rest 
of his life. His first job there was on a news-pa-per called the 
Mirror, but he did not stay ver-y long, be-cause he did not 
get a-long with the boss ver-y well, but as he on-ly got one 
dol-lar a week sal-a-ry it was not much of a job. He was 
prom-ised two dol-lars a week, but did not stay long e-nough 
to get it. 

He was then out of work, but he had al-read-y got the 
i-dea that he must be a news-pa-per man rath-er than an-y- 
thing else; so he looked a-round and found a small pa-per 
called the Mar-i-on Star, which was soon go-ing to die out 
be-cause the man who owned it did not make mon-ey e-nough 
to print it ev-ery day and pay his help. Young Hard-ing knew 
this, and he talked it ov-er with one of his young friends, and 
they got a-bout three hun-dred dol-lars, which was a big lot 
of mon-ey for them to raise, and they had to bor-row from most 
ev-ery-one they knew to get it. So they bought the pa-per. 



WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING. 



127 



All the rest of his life he kept and owned this pa-per, the 
Mar-i-on Star. He worked day and night; he had some ver-y 
bad years, and man-y times it looked as though he would have 
to give up, but it was his joy and his pride; he was bound to 
make it suc-ceed, and gave his whole heart and strength and 
brain to this work. He did ev-ery kind of work which it takes 
to make a news-pa-per. He set type, he put the pa-per in 
the print-ing press; he wrote the news and stor-ies; he got 
stores to give him ad-ver-tise-ments ; he made out the bills, 
and went a-round to col-lect the mon-ey. Ev-ery-thing a-bout 
the whole of-fice he could do and did do. The Mar-i-on Star 
af-ter a few years be-gan to be a good pa-per, and ev-ery year 
it got bet-ter and big-ger, and it made mon-ey ; and War-ren 
Hard-ing, its own-er, be-came one of the lead-ing men in that 
part of the State of O-hi-o. 

When the pa-per had just be-gun to make a lit-tle mon-ey 
and be a suc-cess, the young ed-i-tor mar-ried Miss Flor-ence 
Kling, of his own town. She was the daugh-ter of a bank-er 
who was quite a rich man, and he did not care to have his 
daugh-ter mar-ry a poor news-pa-per man, but he must have 
been ver-y proud long years af-ter-ward when that poor boy, 
the hus-band of his daughter, be-came so great and fa-mous. 
Mrs. Hard-ing was a won-der-ful wom-an and splen-did wife 
and help to her hus-band. She took as much pride in the 
pa-per as he did, and worked on it al-most as hard. The pa-per 
came out ev-ery af-ter-noon and was sold and tak-en to peo- 
ple 's hous-es by small boys af-ter school hours. Mrs. Hard-ing 
made her-self the friend of these boys, kept their ac-counts 
and took full charge of all that part of the busi-ness, which 
was a most im-por-tant part. Hard-ing al-ways said his wife 
should have ful-ly half the cred-it for mak-ing the Star a 
suc-cess. 



128 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Af-ter a few years Hard-ing had be-come so big a man in 
his own part of O-hi-o that he had to make speech-es on the 
great top-ics of the day ; and he was so hon-est, and the peo-ple 
thought him so wise, that they e-lect-ed him to go to Co-lum- 
bus, the cap-i-tal of O-hi-o, as a State Sen-a-tor, to help make 
good and w T ise laws for all the peo-ple of his ow r n State of 
O-hi-o. In ev-ery state the vot-ers from all the tow r ns and 
cit-ies send their good and wise men to the eap-i-tal cit-y in 
each state, and there, in a great build-ing called the Cap-i-tol 
build-ing, they make the rules and laws for all the peo-ple of 
that state. Some-times a bad or a fool-ish man is e-lect-ed, 
but he is soon found out and he is nev-er cho-sen a-gain. 

Hard-ing was State Sen-a-tor from 1900 to 1904, and in 
1904 he was made Lieu-ten-ant Gov-er-nor of the State of 
O-hi-o, which means he w T as next to the great-est pub-lic man 
in his state at that time. The gov-ernor is the great-est man 
in his state dur-ing his term of of-flce and the lieu-ten-ant 
gov-er-nor takes his place, should he die or re-sign while he is 
in of-flce. The gov-er-nor at that time was My-ron T. Her- 
rick, who was a great man and was af-ter-ward sent to France 
to be our am-bas-sa-dor there. 

In 1914 a still high-er hon-or came to Hard-ing. He was 
e-lect-ed to be U-ni-ted States Sen-a-tor from O-hi-o. Ev-ery 
one of the for-ty-eight states which make up our U-ni-ted 
States sends two of its great-est and best men to Wash-ing-ton, 
D. C, for a term of six years. Some-times sen-a-tors have 
been sent for term af-ter term for ov-er twen-ty or thir-ty 
years. It is one of the high-est hon-ors in the whole coun-try, 
and these sen-a-tors with the Pres-i-dent in Wash-ing-ton make 
the laws for the whole U-ni-ted States, and al-so have the 
pow-er to make war and peace and deal with for-eign coun- 



WAIiKEN GAMALIEL HARDING. 



129 



tries, like Eng-land, France, Ger-ma-ny and It-a-ly, when an-y 
dis-putes coine up. 

Hard-ing was sen-a-tor all through the aw-f ul World War, 
which be-gan in Eu-rope in 1914 and which we had to take 
part in from A-pril, 1917, un-til our sol-diers end-ed the war 
in ISTo-vem-ber, 1918. All these four years, es-pec-ial-ly the last 
two — 1917 and 1918 — were al-most the worst years the whole 
world had ev-er seen. Mil-lions of young men were killed, 
wound-ed or blind-ed, bil-lions of dol-lars lost and burned up, 
and all be-cause some of the great na-tions in far-off Eu-rope 
were jeal-ous of one an-oth-er. Our coun-try kept out of the 
aw-ful fight un-til we had to pro-tect our own peo-ple, for 
some A-mer-i-cans were drowned on ships sunk by sub-ma- 
rines from Eu-rope with-out an-y warn-ing and a-gainst all 
the rules of hon-est deal-ing and fair play be-tween na-tions. 

If a boy does-n't play fair with you, or cheats or hits 
be-low the belt or when you are not look-ing, some-one has to 
teach him to be-have by giv-ing him a good lick-ing. 

There were a great man-y ser-i-ous mat-ters which the 
U-ni-ted States Sen-a-tors had to talk a-bout and set-tie in 
those years of the war, and Hard-ing was al-ways found in 
sup-port of our na-tion's rights, and was a great help in those 
ex-cit-ing days to Pres-i-dent Wil-son, who worked night and 
day for our coun-try 's good. Al-though Hard-ing was a Re- 
pub-li-can and Wil-son was a Dem-o-crat, they worked to- 
geth-er, as did most of our great men at that dread-ful time, 
to try to do the best and wis-est thing for our own coun-try 
and to help end the war. 

These years of the war while he was a sen-a-tor of the 
U-ni-ted States gave him a good train-ing for the great place 
of Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States, which he was soon to 
hold. In 1920 the e-lec-tion for Pres-i-dent was held. Wil-son 



130 



LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 



'had been Pres-i-dent for eight years, and as it is al-most a law 
that Pres-i-dents should not hold of-fice for more than that, 
which is two terms in all, the great Dem-o-cratic Par-ty, at a 
meet-ing in San Fran-cis-co, Cal., chose J ames M. Cox to run 
for Pres-i-dent. Cox was at that time the gov-er-nor of O-hi-o, 
the same state that Hard-ing came from, and a fine man and 
ver-y pop-u-lar. The Ee-pub-li-can Par-ty, to which Hard-ing 
be-longed all his life, chose him to run for Pres-i-dent, at a 
meet-ing in Chi-ca-go in June, 1920. There were quite a num- 
ber of oth-er great men who were vot-ed for in that meet-ing, 
or con-ven-tion, as it is called, but Hard-ing was al-ways near 
the top, and in the end all the oth-ers com-bined to choose him. 

The e-lec-tion, which took place in No-vem-ber, 1920, was 
fought out most-ly on the ques-tion of our go-ing in-to a 
"League of Na-tions, ' ' which Pres-i-dent Wil-son want-ed us 
to do at the end of the World War and be-fore his term as 
Pres-i-dent had stopped. The i-dea was that all the na-tions 
of the world should a-gree to help one an-oth-er and try to 
set-tie all dis-putes with-out an aw-f ul war. But a great man-y 
A-mer-i-cans were a-fraid that it meant that we would be 
mixed up with a lot of Eu-ro-pe-an coun-tries and their 
trou-bles, and we might have to send our boys a-cross the 
o-cean to be killed for some-thing that was no af-fair of ours. 

At an-y rate, Cox was much in fa-vor of this " League 
of Na-tions," while Hard-ing and most of the Ee-pub-li-can 
Par-ty and man-y oth-er vot-ers were not, so Hard-ing was 
e-lect-ed Pres-i-dent of our coun-try by a great ma-jor-i-ty. 

At the same time Cal-vin Cool-idge, who was then gov-er- 
nor of the State of Mas-sa-chu-setts, was e-lect-ed Viee-Pres-i- 
dent, lit-tle think-ing that in two short years, by the death of 
Hard-ing, he was to be-come Pres-i-dent. 

Hard-ing be-came Pres-i-dent on March 4, 1921, and dur- 



WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING. 



131 



ing the next two years he did all he could to bring our be-lov-ed 
coun-try back to qui-et and rest af-ter the fear-ful years of 
the World War. There were great mat-ters to be set-tied, lots 
of things to be put back in their right ways. Hard-ing went 
a-bout it wise-ly and pa-tient-ly, but he knew that it would 
be years be-fore all the harm that had been done could be made 
good. He took a great deal of pains to make all the peo-ples 
of the world, es-pec-ial-ly those in Cen-tral and South A-mer- 
i-ca, think we were their friends and w T ould al-ways help them 
when we could, and sure-ly he spoke for all of us A-mer-i-cans 
when he said we want-ed to help Eu-rope to f or-get the wick-ed 
war and once more be hap-py and pros-per-ous. 

One of the great things he did as Pres-i-dent was to call 
all the great na-tions of the world to a meet-ing in Washing- 
ton, D. C, in 1921, to a-gree to stop build-ing so man-y great 
war-ships. Ev-ery na-tion was try-ing to build more and big- 
ger w T ar-ships than ev-ery oth-er na-tion at a fear-ful cost of 
mil-lions and mil-lions of dol-lars which should be spent in 
bet-ter ways for the good of the peo-ple, like mak-ing good 
roads, fac-tor-ies and store-hous-es for wheat and corn. The 
na-tions all a-greed to stop this build-ing of war-ships, and it 
was a splen-did thing to have got-ten them to do. Let us hope 
it will last. 

In the summer of 1923, Pres-i-dent Hard-ing took a trip 
to A-las-ka to see that great north-ern part of our coun-try. 
He made speech-es in man-y cit-ies on his way out and back, 
and his last one was in the Cit-y of Se-at-tle on July 27. He 
was tak-en sick with heart trou-ble dur-ing that speech, and 
he was tak-en to San Fran-cis-co, Cal-i-f or-nia, where he was 
sick, with his wife and great doc-tors at his bed-side, un-til 
he died on Au-gust 2, 1923. 

His bod-y was placed on a spec-ial train in San Fran-cis-co 



132 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



and tak-en to Wash-ing-ton, D. C. The train stopped or 
slowed up at man-y towns and sta-tions on the way, while men 
and wom-en, boys and girls came from their homes and work 
and schools to stand bare-head-ed and with tears in their eyes 
while the train passed on its way. At Wash-ing-ton the bod-y 
was borne to the great hall of the Cap-i-tol by an es-cort of 
sol-diers and sail-ors, with Gen-er-al Persh-ing and oth-er 
great gen-er-als at its head, and the great states-man of the 
coun-try with the two great men then liv-ing who had al-so 
been Pres-i-dents, Taft and Wilson, to do him honor. 

For a few hours in the great hall of the Cap-i-tol thou- 
sands of his fel-low cit-i-zens who loved him paid their last 
trib-ute to the hon-ored ,dead. 

Hard-ing now lies bur-ied in the lit-tle cem-e-tery in his 
old home, Mar-i-on, O-hi-o. 

His wife, Flor-ence Kling Hard-ing, lived on-ly a short 
time af-ter. She died in 1924. 



CALVIN COOLIDGE. 



CAL-VIN COOL IDGE 

Cal-vin Cool-idge, the thir-ti-eth Pres-i-dent of the U-ni- 
ted States, was born on Ju-ly 4, 1872, at Plym-outh Notch, a 
small vil-lage in the State of Ver-mont, a-mong the rock-y 
hills of that state, which is called the Green Moun-tain State. 
The vil-lage is twelve miles from the near-est rail-road sta-tion. 

His fath-er was John Cal-vin Cool-idge, af-ter whom he 
was named, but like at least two oth-er of our Pres-i-dents — 
Ste-phen Gro-ver CI eve-land and Thom-as Wood-row Wil-son 
— he left off his first name, John, when he was a young man, 
and af-ter that was ,called Cal-vin Cool-idge. He was al-ways 
dig-ni-fied, and per-haps he thought peo-ple might call him 
' ' Jack, ' ' and that would nev-er do for one who was to be Pres-i- 
dent of the U-ni-ted States, but of course he did not know that 
at the time ; so why he left off John, a fine, good name which 
so man-y boys are proud of, seems strange. His moth-er was 
Vic-to-ria Cool-idge, and all his f am-i-ly for years be-fore, his 
grand-fath-er, great-grand-fath-er and oth-ers far back all 
lived in Ver-mont or oth-er parts of New Eng-land. His f am- 
i-ly is a-bout as near-ly pure A-mer-i-can by birth as can be. 
There are man-y oth-er f am-i-lies in the hills of Ver-mont and 
New Hamp-shire, and the towns and cit-ies of Mas-sa-chu-setts 
and Con-nect-i-cut that are the same, and man-y of their rel-a- 
tives went out to the great West and made the great states 
there. 

These were the fam-i-lies long years a-go that built the 



1M 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



roads ov-er the hills and through the woods, of t-en hav-ing to 
fight the sav-age In-di-ans to save their lit-tle homes, where 
there were on-ly a few small set-tle-ments and they were far 
a-part. It was these pi-o-neers, as we call them, who made a 
na-tion out of the sav-age wil-der-ness in the east-ern part of 
A-mer-i-ca, and sent some of their sons and daugh-ters slow-ly 
to the great West to make the new-er states, like O-hi-o, Il-li- 
nois, Kan-sas and I-o-wa. They were a brave peo-ple, strong 
and hard-work-ing, and they made the be-gin-nings of our 
U-ni-ted States, the great-est, free-est, rich-est and best land 
in all this world to-day. 

Cal-vin Cool-idge had the us-u-al life of a boy on a farm ; 
he did the chores, helped make ma-ple syr-up, milked the cows, 
mowed the hay, and put in long spring and sum-mer days with- 
out much play or hol-i-day. His fath-er was one of the most 
re-speeted men a-bout, and, be-sides his farm, kept a small 
store where young Cool-idge (he was " young John" then) 
al-so helped. 

He went to the lit-tle vil-lage school for the short time it 
kept in the win-ter, and after a while, as his fath-er could 
af-ford it, he went to a-cad-e-mies or high-schools at Black 
Riv-er, Ver-mont, and Saint Johns-bur-y, Ver-mont, not so 
far a-way from his home. He was a pret-ty good schol-ar, not 
the head of his class, but al-ways get-ting good marks and 
hard-ly ev-er be-ing pun-ished for mis-chief, though as he was 
a red-head-ed boy it is pret-ty safe to say he once in a while 
might have got-ten in-to a lit-tle fight back of the school-house 
fence, like most oth-er reg-u-lar boys. 

In 1891 he , went to Am-herst Col-lege, which is in Am- 
herst, Mas-sa-chu-setts, not far from the Cit-y of North-amp- 
ton, which was af-ter-ward to be his home. He worked at dif- 
ferent jobs in his off -hours at col-lege, to get mon-ey to pay 



CALVIN COOLIDGE. 



135 



his way, so that he did not have time to take much part in 
base-hall or foot-ball or some of the oth-er sports that most 
boys like at col-lege; but he was work-ing hard at his stud-ies 
in his qui-et way and had the re-spect of all the oth-er stu-dents 
though he did not mix with them so ver-y much, un-til a-bout 
his last year at col-lege, when they grew to know him more and 
liked him, and he be-came one of the lead-ers of his class. He 
was al-ways shy, al-most bash-ful; he talked ver-y lit-tle and 
kept so much to him-self that it was hard for the other boys 
at first to know how smart and clev-er and wit-ty he was. He 
made a spec-ial stud-y of his-to-ry, and in his last year at col- 
lege won a gold med-al for an es-say on "The Prin-ci-ples of 
the A-mer-i-can Rev-o-lu-tion, ' ' which sure-ly was a big sub- 
ject for an-y young man to write a-bout, and which on-ly a 
stu-dent who had worked hard and read man-y books could do. 

When he left col-lege, Cal-vin Cool-idge be-gan to stud-y 
to be a law-yer in his home town of North-amp-ton, a beau-ti- 
f ul lit-tle cit-y on the Con-nect-i-cut Riv-er, with great old elm 
trees spread-ing their branch-es ov-er the qui-et streets. He 
stud-ied so well that in less than two years he was made a 
law-yer t ("ad-mit-ted to the bar," as it is called), in 1897. 

Like man-y young men who are law-yers, he pret-ty soon 
be-gan to take an ac-tive in-ter-est in pol-i-tics, or pub-lie af- 
fairs, as it might bet-ter be called. For ten,years he was cho-sen 
to pub-lic of-fic-es by the peo-ple of his cit-y, who had learned 
to know him through and through. His neigh-bors knew his 
hon-es-ty and cour-age, and were proud of his wis-dom, which 
grew ev-ery year, as he kept up his stud-ies and read man-y 
books, and made speech-es on all the great ques-tions the peo- 
ple want-ed to know a-bout. He was a ver-y good speak-er, 
and the peo-ple al-ways liked to hear him, and be-lieved he 
spoke the truth. 



136 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Af-ter man-y oth-er high of-fic-es in his cit-y and state, 
such as on-ly a great and good man could keep on hav-ing by 
the votes of his neigh-bors and the folks who knew him best, 
in 1916 he was e-lect-ed Lieu-ten-ant Gov-er-nor of the great 
State t of Mas-sa-chu-setts, which made him the sec-ond great- 
est man in his state in pub-lic life. Then in 1919 he was e-lect-ed 
Gov-er-nor, the high-est hon-or a man can get in his own state. 

While he was gov-er-nor he had to be in the Cit-y of Bos- 
ton, which is the cap-i-tal of the State of Mas-sa-chu-setts, and 
where the State House is, which is the place where the gov-er- 
nor and the state sen-a-tors and rep-re-sen-ta-tives meet to 
make the laws for that state. In Sep-tem-ber, 1919, the po-lice 
force of Bos-ton, led by some f ool-ish men, de-ci-ded to go on 
a " strike," which means to stop do-ing the work they were 
hired to do and were paid for, and that work was the ver-y 
im-por-tant thing of keep-ing the cit-y free from thieves and 
row-dies. No cit-y or town can get a-long with-out po-lice- 
men, for there are al-ways a few bad peo-ple who may do 
much harm, but nev-er be-fore had an-y po-lice any-where in 
the world gone on strike. They had sworn to pro-tect the 
peo-ple. 

Gov-er-nor Cool-idge told them their work was dif-f er-ent 
from an-y oth-er kind of work, in guard-ing lives and prop- 
erty, and he made the fa-mous speech that " there is no right 
to strike a-gainst the pub-lic safe-ty by any-body, any-where 
or an-y time. ' ' On the night of Sep-tem-ber 9, 1919, the po-lice 
did go on strike, and Bos-ton had one of the most dread-ful 
nights an-y cit-y has ev-er had. Rob-ber-y, mur-der, fire, as- 
sault and al-most all kinds of crimes were done by the bad 
men, who knew there were no po-lice-men to stop them. The 
next morn-ing Gov-er-nor Cool-idge called out all the sol-diers 
of the state and brought them in a hur-ry to Bos-ton, and al-so 



CALVIN COOLIDGE. 



137 



called in the U-ni-ted States Ar-my and Na-vy troops near 
Bos-ton to help, if he should need them. The strike was 
stopped at once, and the po-lice-men went back on du-ty, ex- 
cept a few of the lead-ers who had giv-en the bad ad-vice to 
strike. 

Gov-er-nor Cool-idge was praised by all good peo-ple all 
ov-er the U-ni-ted States, who knew the laws should be o-beyed, 
and ev-ery hon-est man felt saf-er be-cause there was such a 
gov-er-nor as Cool-idge. He knew his du-ty and was brave 
e-nough to do it quick-ly and well. 

A lit -tie lat-er there was an-oth-er e-lec-tion for gov-er-nor 
and Cool-idge was a-gain cho-sen, with man-y more votes than 
be-fore, which proved how much the peo-ple liked this fear-less 
and hon-est man. 

In June, 1920, the great Re-pub-li-can Par-ty held a meet- 
ing to choose men whom they would vote for to be Pres-i-dent 
and Vice-Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States for the four-year 
term from March 4, 1921, to March 4, 1925. All the men at 
that meet-ing who were from his home state, Mas-sa-chu-setts, 
and man-y more from oth-er states vot-ed to make Cool-idge 
the man for Pres-i-dent, but af-ter some time they chose War- 
ren G. Hard-ing from O-hi-o to run for Pres-i-dent. Then 
they chose Cool-idge to be the one to run for Yice-Pres-i-dent, 
ev-ery-body in the meet-ing choos-ing him for that place. A 
great man-y thought it should have been the oth-er way, Cool- 
idge for Pres-i-dent and Hard-ing for Vice-Pres-i-dent, but 
they were both great and good men who were loved in their 
own homes and states, and who had proved to the whole coun- 
try their right to have these great hon-ors. 

The Vice-Pres-i-dent must at once take the place of the 
Pres-i-dent if the Pres-i-dent should die in of-fice, and as it 
has hap-pened five times in the his-to-ry of the U-ni-ted States, 



138 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



that the Pres-i-dent has died be-fore his term was ov-er and 
the Vice-Pres-i-dent has had to take his place, a man is al-ways 
cho-sen for Vice-Pres-i-dent who is just as good and wise as 
the man cho-sen for Pres-i-dent, for no one knows when the 
Vice-Pres-i-dent may have to take the high-er place. 

Pres-i-dent Hard-ing died when on-ly half his term was 
through. He had made a trip to A-las-ka, and on his way 
back be-came ill with heart trou-ble and died in San Fran- 
cis-co, Cal-i-f or-nia in Au-gust, 1923. 

Cal-vin Cool-idge on that day was spend-ing his va-ca-tion 
in Plym-outh, Ver-mont, at his fath-er's home, next door to 
the house where he was born. The news of Pres-i-dent Hard- 
ing's death came to him at mid-night, brought b}^ some news- 
pa-per-men who had rushed in an au-to-mo-bile from the 
near-est rail-road sta-tion twelve miles a-way. There was no 
tel-e-phone or tel-e-graph or ra-di-o in the vil-lage of Plym- 
outh, it was so far back in the hills. Cool-idge was wak-ened 
from his sleep, and in the plain old-fa sh-ioned par-lor or sit- 
ting-room of the lit-tle New Eng-land farm-house, with on-ly 
the light of a ker-o-sene lamp, his own fath-er, who was a 
jus-tice of the peace, ad-min-is-tered the oath of of-fice which 
made him Pres-i-dent. They stood by the side of a sim-ple 
ta-ble, on which lay the old, f am-i-ty Bi-ble with all its rec-ords 
of his birth and his mar-riage and his chil-dren's births. 

There was no pa-rade, no sol-diers, no great crowd of 
peo-ple, on-ly the sim-ple plain old farm-house and a great 
man born there and now raised to the great-est place in the 
world. That is one of the things our coun-try means. Ev-ery 
boy has a chance to be-come great and hon-ored, no mat-ter 
wheth-er he was born on a poor rock-y farm back in the hills 
or in a great cit-y and rich par-ents. 

Cool-idge left for Wash-ing-ton, D. C, ear-ly the next 



CALVIN COOLIDGE. 



139 



day, and took up the pow-ers and the cares and bur-dens that 
be-long to a Pres-i-dent. He made few chang-es in the plans 
of Pres-i-dent Hard-ing and the great pow-er passed to its 
new head with-out an-y ques-tion or dis-play. It was a most 
won-der-ful proof of the free-dom our land is blessed with, 
and that there are al-ways great and good men in our coun-try 
who are read-y for the great work of lead-ing us when they 
are called. 

In J une, 1924, at Cleve-land, O-hi-o, the Ee-pub-li-can 
Par-ty chose Cool-idge for Pres-i-dent for four years from 
1925 to 1929. Al-most ev-ery vote at that con-ven-tion was 
for him. When the e-lec-tion came in JSTo-vem-ber, 1924, Cool- 
idge was e-lect-ed Pres-i-dent by a great ma-jor-i-ty, al-though 
the Dem-o-crat-ic Par-ty had named John W. Da-vis of the 
State of West Vir-gin-ia, and the Pro-gres-sive Par-ty named 
Eob-ert M. La Fol-ette of the State of Wis-con-sin. Neith-er 
of them had the slight-est chance a-gainst Cool-idge, who had 
so well proved his hon-es-ty and cour-age and wis-dom in ev-ery 
of-fice he had ev-er held. 

Pres-i-dent Cool-idge had a great loss when his young-er 
son, Cal-vin, Ju-nior, a fine boy of four -teen years, died in 
1924. The whole coun-try gave its sym-pa-thy, as ev-ery fam- 
i-ly could feel what it was to lose a son. Cal-vin Cool-idge 's 
moth-er died when he was twelve years old, but a de-vot-ed 
step-moth-er loved him as her own son. He oft-en paid trib-ute, 
which you felt came straight from his heart, to what he owed 
to the love of these two no-ble wom-en, who made a good boy 
in those Ver-mont hills, who was to grow in-to a great man. 



THE END. 



BURT'S SERIES of ONE SYLLABLE BOOKS 



14-Titles. Handsome Illuminated Cloth Binding. 

A series of Classics, selected specially for young people's 
reading, and told in simple language for youngest readers. 
Printed from large type, with many illustrations. 

Price 65 Cents per Volume. 

Aesop's Fables. 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Mary 
Godolphin. With 41 illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Mrs. 
J. C. Gorham. With many illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Andersen's Fairy Tales. 

(Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable for young 
people. By Harriet Tl. Comstock. With many illustra- 
tions. Illuminated cloth. 




Bible Heroes. 

Told in words of one syllable for young people. By Harriet T. Comstock. With many 
illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Black Beauty. 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Mrs. J. C. Gorham. With many 
illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Grimm's Fairy Tales. 

(Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable. By Jean S. Remy. With many illustra- 
tions. Illuminated cloth. 

Gulliver's Travels. 

Into several remote regions of the world. Retold in words of one syllable for young 
people. By J. C. G. With 32 illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Life of Christ. 

Told in words of one syllable for young people. By Jean S. Remy. With many 
illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Lives of the Presidents. 

Told in words of one syllable for young people. By Jean S. Remy. With 24 large 
portraits. Illuminated cloth. 

Pilgrim's Progress. 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Samuel Phillips Day. With 
32 illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Reynard the Fox: 

The Crafty Courtier. Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By SamueL 
Phillips Day. With 23 illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Robinson Crusoe. 

His life and surprising adventures retold in words of one syllable for young people. By 
Mary A. Schwacofer. With 32 illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Sanford and Merton. 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Mary Godolphin. With 20 
illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 

Swiss Family Robinson. 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. Adapted from the original. With 
32 illustrations. Illuminated cloth. 



For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers, A. L. 
BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd Street. New York. 



4 



